A public interest litigation (PIL) filed against the government in the Bombay High Court has sought attention to the backlog of appointing two bench members at the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), the forum for challenging the capital markets regulator.
The petition was filed by Somasekhar Sundaresan, a partner of Mumbai-based securities law firm J Sagar Associates.
The tribunal which is currently headed by NK Sodhi, the presiding officer, needs two more members to pass final orders.
The petitioner said that based on interviews conducted by a committee headed by SAT’s presiding officer, the new members had already been selected. But the appointments have not materialised so far. The court observed today that those appointments should be made without further delay.
“The court has given six weeks’ time for the next hearing,” said Sundaresan. “Meanwhile, the government is expected to make the appointment.” The petitioner highlighted the fact that in the past one month, the Air India chairman has been replaced twice. But the Appointments Committee of Cabinet has not given priority to the judicial appointments.
“This is a denial to the statutory right to appeal,” said Sundaresan. “The Sebi Act enables appeals against all action and decisions of Sebi; these are statutory rights that are available and because judges are not there these statutory rights are denied,” he said.
The tribunal had brought pendency down to 90-80, but the backlog has now gone up to 140-150 due to the absence of the two bench members.
