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Securities and Exchange Board of India v. Udayant Malhoutra

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 647Decided 18 Nov 2020
Civil Appeal Nos. 2981-2982 of 2020
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice Indu Malhotra · Justice Indira Banerjee

Background

SEBI's Whole Time Member had passed an ex-parte interim order against Udayant Malhoutra, the CEO and Managing Director of a listed company, directing him to deposit over Rs 3.83 crore into an escrow account over an alleged insider-trading sale of shares made in 2016. The Securities Appellate Tribunal set aside that interim order, holding there was no urgency justifying an ex-parte action years after the alleged trade, especially given that the investigation had been pending since 2017 and information was supplied by Malhoutra in late 2019. SEBI appealed to the Supreme Court, concerned mainly about certain broader legal observations the Tribunal had made about SEBI's powers.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the Tribunal's conclusion on facts: there was no genuine urgency to justify an ex-parte interim order issued years after the transaction in question, so setting aside that order was correct. However, the Court was careful to clarify that the Tribunal's broader observations on when SEBI can demand disgorgement deposits should not be treated as a legal precedent in future cases, since Section 11(4) of the SEBI Act gives SEBI power to impound proceeds under investigation. With that clarification, the Court affirmed the Tribunal's order and disposed of the appeals.

Lesson Learnt

Even where a regulator has emergency powers, those powers must be used only when genuine urgency exists: a delay of years before invoking an ex-parte measure undermines the justification for bypassing a fair hearing; but a ruling on the facts of one case should not be read as cutting back a regulator's general statutory powers.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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