Sebi’s review petition in RIL case dismissed

RIL claims certain relevant documents will absolve it and its promoters from prosecution in a case relating to alleged irregularities in buying its own shares in 1994-2000. SEBI declined to entertain RIL’s plea to share the documents on the ground that under the SEBI (Settlement Proceedings) Regulations, the accused company has no right to seek information from it.

The apex court, in its earlier decision, had dismissed the SEBI’s plea.

On Friday, a Supreme Court bench headed by former Chief Justice UU Lalit and comprising Justices JK Maheshwari and Hima Kohli dismissed the regulator’s plea with a 2:1 majority. “In view of the majority opinion, the review petition is dismissed…”, it said.

On September 29, SEBI had filed a review petition before the apex court, and the court agreed to an open court hearing before listing the matter for further hearing on October 12.

Justice Kohli, in his September 30 order, said: “After carefully examining the contents of the review petition, there is no valid reason to review the August 5 judgment. The grounds urged do not fall within the restricted scope of the review petition.” Therefore, the review petition should not be entertained.”

This led the court to withdraw the case from hearing in open court. Subsequently, RIL informed the court that the regulator had not provided documents to the company despite repeated requests. Last week, the apex court had also issued a contempt notice to SEBI for not complying with its order.

SEBI on January 21, 2002, against RIL, its associate companies and directors in S. Gurumurthy, alleging that he had fraudulently allotted 120 million shares of RIL to entities linked to RIL’s promoters, which were funded by RIL. Firms and other group entities.