Finance Ministry defends Arun Sathe's appointment on Sebi board, says well qualified

NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry today defended the appointment of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's brother Arun P Sathe as part-time member on Sebi board, saying he is well qualified and a person of high integrity.

"He is well qualified to be a part-time member of Sebi. I do not see any reason for controversy from what we have checked, he has high integrity. We did our own checks before appointing him," Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told PTI.

The Finance Ministry in a notification said the appointment has been made under a provision of the Sebi Act that empowers the government to appoint five members on the board of this key regulatory body, which regulates stock exchanges, various kinds of market entities including brokers, mutual funds, FIIs, rating agencies and investment bankers, as also thousands of listed companies.

"He is a leading lawyer, there is no question for controversy," another Finance Ministry official said.

Sathe is said to have been an RSS full-timer in the past.

Out of the five members that the government can appoint on the Sebi board, at least three must be whole-time members. In addition, the board includes a Chairman and three nominee members -- one each from RBI, the Finance Ministry and the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

Sathe's appointment has also been made at a time when one more position is vacant on Sebi's board and its Chairman U K Sinha's current tenure will end in February 2016.

Going by the current board composition, the government can appoint one more member.

The appointment comes at a time when a huge uproar has been witnessed over alleged political considerations in appointments made by the government to various important institutions, including on Film and Television Institute of India