The Supreme Court has held that the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) had not acted in any malafide or irregular manner in the listing of the scrips relating to M/s Presto Finance which was subsequently delisted for cheating hundreds of investors.
A Bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph dismissed the Special Leave Petition filed by Mahesh Ratilal Shah, a sub-broker who sought a direction to the Sebi to de-recognize the BSE for allegedly misleading the investors by listing the shares on its exchange.
Shah had said he was induced by the BSE and its members to buy 4,50,800 shares of "Presto Finance" at a cost of Rs 71,19,817.30 with the exchange.
He complained the BSE and its members had intentionally and deliberately cheated him by giving him delivery of 1,56,100 forged share certificates and refused to cancel the said dealing when the same was discovered and instead asked him to approach the liquidator of Presto Finance for claiming damages.
However, the apex court, on a perusual of the records, noted that the scrip of M/s Presto Finance Was listed on the BSE after it had been listed on the Ahmedabad Stock Exchange.
However, as soon as information was received that the company was involved in fraudulent dealing of its scrip and on intimation from the Ahmedabad Stock Exchange, the scrip was delisted and debarred from trading by the BSE, the apex court said.