No respite for investors in vanishing firms

 All the cases, however, remain sub-judice and investors continue to be in the lurch.

 None of the companies or the directors have been slapped with any kind of fines till now.

 The market regulator has, however, debarred 93 companies and 351 directors from accessing the markets for five years under Section 11b of the Sebi Act, 1992.

 But the question of imposing criminal liability on the erring parties and compensation to the investors hinges on the court decision.

 If found guilty, they would be held liable under sections 63, 68 and 168 of the Companies Act, 1956.

 In 1999-2000, a central co-ordination and monitoring committee co-chaired by the DCA secretary the Sebi chairman was constituted.

 This committee was to be assisted by seven task forces in identifying the disappeared companies.

 Now, there are only four task forces with the regional offices in Bombay, Kolkata, Chennai and Kanpur. At present, the task forces are monitoring the progress of the cases in the court.

 In the past four years, the task forces have not been able to identify any more vanishing companies.