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The number of new appeals filed against the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) rose to 1,192 at the end of FY23 — 53 per cent higher than the 780 appeals filed the previous year.
The number of disposals by the SAT rose to 1,131 from 715 the previous year. Of the 1,131 disposals, 606 or 54 per cent appeals were dismissed (ruled in favour of SEBI), 178 or 15.7 per cent appeals were allowed (ruled against SEBI) and 201 appeals (17.8 per cent) were remanded for fresh consideration, SEBI’s annual report showed.
During the year, the SAT gave judgments in cases such as the NSE co-location group matter, NDTV and Satyam Computers.
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About 67 per cent of the disposed-off appeals was with respect to the violation of the provisions of the PFUTP Regulations. Of this, 60 per cent of the appeals were dismissed, 13 per cent allowed and 16 per cent remanded. Ten per cent of the appeals pertaining to takeover regulations were allowed and 44 per cent of the appeals with respect to insider trading norms were allowed. During the year, SAT took note of the backlog of cases pertaining to illiquid stock options at SEBI and issued directions to devise a scheme to settle such cases. This prompted the SEBI to introduce Settlement Scheme-2022, which has resulted in the settlement of proceedings by 10,981 entities. “Market fraud, manipulation, and insider trading cases have risen significantly. The increasing complexity inherent in these matters is reflecting in the dissatisfaction of people approaching SAT against SEBI’s decisions which, in turn, has led to a notable increase in the volume of appeals,” said Ravi Prakash, Associate Partner, Corporate Professionals Advisors & Advocates. As on March 31, 2023, there were 440 cases pending before the Supreme Court, compared to 372 pending in the previous year. Of the 73 cases disposed of during the year, 54 cases were disposed of in favour of SEBI, while 19 were disposed of against SEBI. There were 1,132 cases pending before the High Courts compared with 1,142 cases in the previous year. Of the 248 cases disposed of during the year, 242 cases were in favour of SEBI, while six were against SEBI. SEBI is beefing up its legal team, and recently invited applications for appointing 25 grade A legal officers.
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