Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT)

Zerick Dastur Advocates & Solicitors has filed an appeal before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) challenging the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) order of last week banning the Big 4 consultancy from auditing work in India.

Realty major DLF today moved the securities tribunal against the order passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) banning it and six of its executives from the capital markets for three years on charges of misleading investors.

A DLF spokesperson told IANS that the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) will hear its appeal against the Securities and Exchange Board of India Oct 22.

Ahead of filing the appeal, DLF had said in a statement that it had done no wrong nor had any law been violated during the initial public offer or otherwise. DLF had raised Rs.9,187 crore through the public offer in 2007.

“DLF and its board were guided by, and acted on, the advice of eminent legal advisors, merchant bankers and audit firms while formulating its Offer documents,” the statement had said.

“DLF will defend itself to the fullest extent against any adverse findings and measures contained in the order passed by SEBI DLF has full faith in the judicial process and is confident of vindication of its stand in the near future.”

Those prohibited from the markets include the chairman K P Singh, his son and vice-chair Rajiv Singh, daughter and whole-time director Pia Singh. Others barred are the managing director, TC Goyal, and senior officials Kameshwar Swarup and Ramesh Sanka.

PK Malhotra – the last of the two present members in the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), and currently presiding over the body – was appointed as secretary of the legislative department. The other member – SSN Moorthy – is set to retire this month. [PTI]

The tribunal has had no presiding officer since ex-chairman justice Nauvdeep Kumar Sodhi’s retirement in December last year. Malhotra had been officiating as presiding officer since then.

The lack of a presiding officer had cast ambiguity over the validity of the previous year’s decisions of the SAT. [The Firm, Money Control]

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