SC admits Sebi plea against SAT order

MUMBAI: Market watchdog Sebi on Monday moved the Supreme Court (SC), challenging the Securities Appellate Tribunal’s order quashing the regulator’s decision holding a stock broker guilty of manipulating share prices of Shonk Technologies, Global Trust Bank and DSQ Software in stock market scamof 2000-01.

A bench comprising justice CK Thakker and justice Tarun Chatterjee, after preliminary hearing, admitted Sebi’s plea against the tribunal’s order, which held that the regulator lacked enough evidence to prove that stock broker Millennium Equities (India) had manipulated scrip prices of three companies.

Sebi said that it had suspended Millennium Equities’ certificate of registration for six months after a probe showed that the stock broker, through its dealings on the Bombay Stock Exchange, was found guilty of manipulating the prices.

Solicitor general GE Vahanvati submitted that the stock broker had aided and abetted entities associated with and controlled by Ketan Parekh in violation of the provisions of the Sebi (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices Relating to the Securities Market) Regulations, 1995.

Stating that synchronisation could not have occurred without active participation of the broker, Sebi alleged the broker had traded in the scrip in high quantities and indulged in synchronised trades, thus resulting in creation of an artificial market for the scrips and manipulation of their prices. It further said that serious prejudices would be caused as the SAT’s order would hamper other pending proceedings based on similar facts.