Parliament's Public Accounts Committee likely to summon Sebi chief Buch

The PAC will probe the allegations against the Sebi chief and also ask her and other officials from the ministries of finance and corporate affairs to appear before the committee

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament is set to investigate allegations against Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chief Madhabi Puri Buch and is likely to summon her later this month.

The PAC has included the “performance review of regulatory bodies established by Act of Parliament” as one of the subjects it will examine during 2024-25.

As part of this, the committee will probe the allegations against the Sebi chief and also ask her and other officials from the ministries of finance and corporate affairs to appear before the committee. Buch could be summoned as early as later this month, sources said.

 

The PAC, headed by Congress leader K C Venugopal, added the “performance review of regulatory bodies” to its list of 160-odd subjects after several committee members demanded an inquiry into the functioning of Sebi and allegations against Buch at the panel’s first meeting on August 29.

The subject was added on a "suo motu" basis, as mentioned in the Lok Sabha bulletin issued on September 2, following the last committee meeting. The committee is empowered to summon officials, which it will do in subsequent meetings.

The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for September 10. The stated agenda is the “performance audit” of the Jal Jeevan Mission, but the PAC is likely to hold a couple more meetings this month.

The PAC’s decision to examine the functioning of regulatory bodies comes in the context of accusations of conflict of interest against Buch regarding Sebi’s investigation into Hindenburg Research’s allegations against the Adani group.

The Congress and other INDIA bloc parties have demanded a joint parliamentary committee probe into the issue, along with Buch’s resignation or removal as Sebi chief. The Congress has also questioned payments made to Buch by ICICI Bank, her former employer, alleging that she held an office of profit and received income from the bank while drawing a salary from Sebi.

Zee founder Subhash Chandra has accused her of corrupt practices. Meanwhile, employees of Sebi, in a written complaint to the finance ministry, have raised concerns about a “toxic work culture” at the regulator.

Buch and her husband have denied any wrongdoing, and ICICI Bank has also rejected the Congress’ allegations. Sebi has dismissed the claims by its employees, attributing their protests to “external elements.”

The 22-member PAC comprises 15 MPs from the Lok Sabha and seven from the Rajya Sabha. In addition to Congress’ Venugopal, its prominent members include Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nishikant Dubey, Anurag Thakur, Jagdambika Pal, Tejasvi Surya and Sudhanshu Trivedi; Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s T R Baalu and T Shiva; Congress’ Shaktisinh Gohil, Amar Singh, Jai Parkash, C M Ramesh; Aparajita Sarangi; Ashok Chavan; and Trinamool Congress leaders Saugata Roy and Sukhendu Shekhar Ray.

The PAC is one of the more important parliamentary panels, tasked with auditing the government’s revenue and expenditure. It selects audit paragraphs from various reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for in-depth examination and also takes up suo motu subjects for scrutiny throughout the year.