 "A judge hitting gavel with paper at wooden table. (Photo: Shutterstock)")
The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Thursday partially upheld an order by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) against the promoters of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL).
The tribunal, while affirming some violations by promoters T Venkattram Reddy, T Vinayak Ravi Reddy, and P K Iyer, reduced the penal amount to Rs 65 lakh from Rs 1.3 crore. However, the Sebi order to bar them from the securities market for two years was quashed.
In May 2022, Sebi had issued an order alleging manipulation in financials, lapses in buyback procedures, and failure to submit disclosures on material information.
The market regulator had also imposed a penalty of Rs 4 crore on DCHL, which has been set aside by the tribunal. In its order, Sebi had alleged that the company had announced buyback in the absence of adequate reserves. The tribunal also affirmed violations on non-disclosure of agreements related to pledging of shares.
The tribunal further took note of the delay by Sebi in issuing the show-cause notice from the date of alleged violations. The matter pertains to transactions carried out in 2008-2009 while the show-cause notice was issued in 2017, and the first hearing was provided three years later.
“The finding that since there is no period to conclude the proceedings, there is no delay is patently erroneous. Such an approach is totally unreasonable,” said SAT.
