Securities Appellate Tribunal-SEBI differences surface

MUMBAI, SEPT. 28. The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) made it clear today that "the tribunal has never ever" told the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) not to place its orders on the website of the capital market regulator. The wide communication gap between the SAT and the public was much discussed and debated on several forums recently as dissemination of the tribunal orders came to a halt. The SEBI has suspended posting of these orders since January. However in an informal meeting with newspersons, top officials of SEBI gave the impression that the SAT orders were not placed on its website as the SAT itself was not interested. On behalf of SAT, its presiding officer, Justice Kumar Rajaratnam, today noted that, "The tribunal was surprised to read in financial newspapers and journals that SAT had not given permission for SEBI to place its pronouncements on the website of SEBI. The tribunal has never ever informed SEBI either in writing or orally that the orders of the tribunal cannot be placed on SEBI's website. All proceedings of the tribunal are in open court and all orders passed by the tribunal are open to public scrutiny." When contacted, the former presiding officer of the tribunal, C. Achuthan, said that the SEBI had never taken any permission from the SAT to publish its orders on SEBI's website. The SEBI continued publishing SAT orders regularly, but not without hurdles. However, this practice of transparency was discontinued as the tribunal became a multi-member set-up (three members, including the presiding officer) in the beginning of this calendar year. In the beginning, when SEBI started placing SAT orders on its website, the market regulator was choosy. The SEBI published only the orders that went in its favour. As certain law reporters started regularly publishing all the orders passed by the tribunal, the SEBI's selective publishing by putting orders of its liking on its website was not of much use to them. However, SEBI started publishing orders of SAT regularly on the regulator's SEBI website. The SAT also stated, "Any newspaper or journal is also at liberty to approach the tribunal for a certified copy of any pronouncement of the tribunal. This clarification is made on behalf of the tribunal and in public interest." This statement of SAT proves a point that the onus clearly lies with the SEBI. When the tribunal became a multi-member set up why SEBI opted not to publish the orders as it was doing immediately prior to the changeover can only be explained by SEBI.