Facts absolutely opposite: Sebi chief on public perception in legal cases

Amid perception in certain quarters that Sebi is weak on the legal side, its chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Wednesday said "the facts are absolutely opposite".

Sebi lost the high profile NSE co-location case in the Supreme Court recently wherein the apex court has partly upheld Sebi's orders of making NSE pay Rs 600 crore.

Partly disposing of Sebi order, it allowed only Rs 100 crore penalty on the largest equity bourse and asked the Sebi to return the rest to the exchange.

Addressing a press conference after a board meeting here this evening, Buch said, "while we do admit that the public perception is against us, the facts are absolutely opposite."

Sharing details, she said, "We on average win as much as 75 per cent of the cases at the Supreme Court. That means we lose only one-fourth of the cases that go to the apex court. And I don't think this is bad run rate.

"When it comes to the Securities Appellate Tribunal, our success rate is much higher at 81 per cent as of 2021," Buch said.

Also, as much as 75 per cent of the cases that go to the Supreme Court are linked to one or more cases, she said.

However, she said that in certain aspects of its regulatory/punitive powers, the regulaor lacks capabilities. "For instance in forensic audit, we are nowhere. We need to develop that skill but I know such skill cannot be developed overnight," she said when asked why Sebi is outsourcing its investigative jobs.

"But in most other areas we have massively improved our capabilities. We today even do algo-driven assessments. Also we have greatly improved our market intelligence. We are able to do algo-level analysis today. In fact, the level of granularity in our investigations is really high today," she said.