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Securities and Exchange Board of India vs. Devendra Singh Chandel

Criminal Leave Petition · 2026:DHC:7377Decided 2 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
CRL.L.P. 2/2026CNR: DLHC011079182025
Justice Chandrasekharan Sudha

Background

SEBI sought the Delhi High Court's permission ("leave") to appeal against a trial court's acquittal of the respondent in a case involving alleged violations under company/securities law. The respondent opposed the leave petition, arguing that an acquitted person enjoys a "double presumption of innocence" and that the petition was itself filed beyond the legal time limit.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that at the leave stage, it need only assess whether the case raises arguable points deserving fuller examination, not decide whether the acquittal will ultimately be overturned. It found the case did raise such arguable points. On the limitation objection, the Court calculated that after excluding the 54 days the court registry took to prepare the certified copy of the judgment, the petition was filed within the prescribed 180-day period. Leave to appeal was accordingly granted, and the matter was directed to be registered and numbered as a full criminal appeal.

Lesson Learnt

When a regulator or the State seeks permission to appeal an acquittal, courts apply a relatively low threshold, checking only for arguable grounds, rather than pre-judging the appeal's merits at that preliminary stage.

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