The Securities Appellate Tribunal has again adjourned a case related to Reliance Industries and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to April 8.
The tribunal adjourned the hearing saying that it needs more time to study the case, which is related to an alleged violation of insider trading norms in sale of shares by Reliance Industries in its erstwhile subsidiary Reliance Petroleum in 2007. It helped RIL and its subsidiaries make gains worth over Rs 500 crore.
The oil and gas major had moved the tribunal against the market regulator after the latter rejected the petroleum major’s application to settle the matter on the alleged violation under consent framework process, in which an entity being investigated pays a fee and the regulator drops the case and all charges of wrongdoing.
However, in May 2012, SEBI had tweaked the regulations for settlement through consent framework and made it more stringent, as a result of which many cases, including those related to insider trading cannot be settled through this mechanism.
RIL has challenged the recent changes made by the regulator in regulations governing settlement of cases through the consent mechanism.
On January 3, SEBI published a list of 149 consent pleas, including 16 from entities related to RIL group, which it had found unsuitable for settlement through consent process.