SAT adjourns RIL-Sebi case till January 24

Granting more time to capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi ), The Securities Appellate Tribunal adjourned the hearing on the plea filed by Reliance Industries RIL ) on January 24 for admission.Billionaire Mukesh Ambani controlled RIL has filed a petition in the tribunal challenging the denial of inspections of documents by Sebi post the market regulator had issued a show cause order. The country's largest privately held company also arguing that market regulator is rejecting consent mechanism route after agreeing to it.SAT presiding officer PK Malhotra asked whether refusal of sebi to settle the case through consent maintainable in the tribunal. SAT says consent order concept is without prejudice to the legal proceedings.Sebi's lawyer Shiraz Rustomjee said the regulator received the petition late last evening and sought time to study it. He also challenged the maintainability of the RIL petition, saying it is a non starter and that under the consent procedure, appeals are not contemplated and hence, SAT should decide whether to admit the petition at all.While, Senior Counsel Janak Dwarkadas, representing RIL in the matter, said it has had to go in appeal as it feels Sebi has acted in a discriminatory manner in the case.Earlier, Sebi has rejected a third attempt by RIL, the country's largest private sector firm, for an out-of-court settlement of insider trading charges. The regulator has also issued a supplementary show-cause notice, incorporating new findings, to RIL on the same matter.