SC dismisses Sebi's appeals against SAT relief for Reliance, promoters
Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the Securities and Exchange Board of India's appeals against a Securities Appellate Tribunal’s (SAT) July order that set aside the market regulator's penalty of Rs 25 crore imposed on Reliance Industries (RIL), its promoters Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani and others in April 2021 for violating takeover norms in a case related to the acquisition of RIL shares between 1994-2000.
The apex court also dismissed another Sebi appeal against SAT’s December 4 order that set aside the Rs 25-crore penalty imposed by the market regulator on RIL, Rs 15 crore on Mukesh Ambani, Rs 20 crore on Navi Mumbai SEZ and Rs 10 crore on Mumbai SEZ for their alleged role in the manipulation of prices of Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL)s shares in November 2007. While the appellate tribunal had quashed the penalties against Mukesh Ambani, Navi Mumbai SEZ, and Mumbai SEZ in the same case, it upheld SEBI's penalty against Reliance Industries. RPL was absorbed into RIL in 2009.
SEBI in its appeal said that Mukesh Ambani being responsible for the affairs of the company cannot absolve himself and plead ignorance about the entire scheme of manipulative transactions undertaken for the benefit of the company in the shares of RPL in the Cash and F&O Segment.
However, the apex court agreed to hear a separate cross-appeal by RIL against SAT’s December order in the case of price manipulation of RPL shares on December 2. RIL in its appeal told the SC that SAT had upheld the penalty despite Sebi’s whole-time member having
