SAT sets aside Sebi order barring Polaris' Arun Jain from market

Securities Appellate Tribunal has set aside a Sebi order that had barred Polaris Software Labs CMD Arun Jain from the securities market for two years on charges of insider trading.The appeal was filed by Jain against the Securities and Exchange Board of India order passed on October 9 last year."Counsel for both the parties state that in view of peculiar facts of present case, without going into merits of the case and without giving any reasons impugned order dated October 9, 2012 may be set aside," SAT said in its order dated December 23.SAT quashed and set aside the order of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), but the order did not provide any specific details.In November 2012, Madras High Court had stayed on Sebi's directive.Sebi had conducted a probe into the dealings of Polaris Software Labs' shares during August-September 2000, and found Jain, CMD and promoter of the company, guilty of norms related to insider trading.It charged him of trading in the stock on the basis of 'unpublished price sensitive information' relating to a proposed acquisition by the firm.The regulator said it found that Polaris had called off the proposed acquisition of Data Inc after due diligence in the second week of September, 2000 but had informed the concerned stock exchanges on September 30, 2000."During the investigations, it was observed that the company had deliberately withheld this (proposed acquisition) price sensitive information from the public domain," Sebi had said.The regulator had said that Jain dealt in 15,080 shares of the company on behalf of Polaris Holding Private Limited (PHPL) on the basis of 'unpublished price sensitive information' held by him and had made unfair gains to the tune of Rs 27.2600000.During the relevant time, PHPL was one of the promoters entity of Polaris Software Labs and Jain was one of the directors of PHPL.