Supreme Court dismisses SEBI appeal against SAT's decision to quash penalty imposed on Apollo Tyres
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) against an order passed by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) setting aside a penalty of Rs 65 lakh imposed on Apollo Tyres in an alleged 2003 share buy-back norms violation case.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti deprecated SEBI’s practice to appeal every decision of SAT going against the market regulator.
The bench asked SEBI to furnish an affidavit on a list of special leave petitions filed before the apex court against orders of the appellate tribunal.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta defended SEBI saying that the market regulator does not appeal every decision but files special leave petitions only after observing a screening process.
In an order passed in September this year, a bench presided over by Justice Tarun Agarwala of the SAT quashed market regulator’s order passed in 2018 imposing a penalty of Rs 65 lakh on M/s Apollo Tyres Ltd. for alleged violation of SEBI (Buy-Back of Securities) Regulations, 1998.
It had said that there has been an inordinate delay in the initiation of the proceedings as SEBI was in the know of the buy-back of the shares since 2003.