The government today informed Rajya Sabha that market regulator Sebi has rejected Reliance Industries' plea to drop insider trading charges against it in lieu of payment of a fine under a scheme called consent order.
"RIL filed an application for consent dated November 5, 2009. The consent terms proposed by RIL were not found to be acceptable by Sebi and it has conveyed this to RIL," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena told the Upper House in a written reply.
Following inquiry into the trading pattern of scrips of Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RIL), between November one and November 29, 2007, Sebi had initiated quasi-judicial proceedings against RIL, the Minister said.
Reliance Petroleum, a subsidiary of RIL, was subsequently merged with the parent entity, the flagship company of the Mukesh Ambani Group.
Under the procedure for obtaining consent orders, an entity approaches Sebi, admits wrongdoings and pays fine to get rid of charges being probed.