The former presiding officer of the Securities Appellate Tribunal, C Achuthan (70), passed away yesterday afternoon after suffering a massive cardiac arrest, police said.
He died while he was waiting to enter the famed Sabarimala temple in Kerala, where he was accompanied by his son Anoop.
"Achuthan was rushed to the Pampa General Hospital, but was declared brought dead. The body was taken to Thane (where his family is settled now)," the Pampa police, under whose jurisdiction the Sabarimala temple falls, told PTI.
Achuthan was one of the directors appointed by the government to steer the scam-tainted Satyam Computer Services, now Mahindra Satyam, after a multi-crore accounting scam was unearthed in January, 2009.
He also chaired the new Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee of capital markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India. After his retirement from the SAT, he was working as a partner with Mumbai-based law firm Corporate Law Chambers.
Achuthan was appointed as the SAT presiding officer for a five-year period from November, 1997. His term, which was extended by a year, expired on November 3, 2003.
Achuthan was born and initially educated in Atavan, a small village in Mallapuram district of Kerala.
A Masters in Economics with a degree in law from the Bombay University, Achuthan started off with the Indian Legal Services and served as a legal advisor to the central government and also served on the Company Law Board before being promoted as the SAT's sole presiding officer from 1997 to 2003.
Some of the sensitive cases that came before him during this period at the SAT included the appeals by Sterlite Industries, BPL, Videocon, Anand Rathi Stock Brokers, Grasim (L&T takeover), Wimco, Clariant, Gujarat Ambuja (on ACC shares), Herbertsons and stockbroker Ketan Parekh cases and Seamec.