Amul Gagabhai Desai vs Securities And Exchange Board Of India

Tarun Agarwala, Presiding Officer

The present appeal has been filed against the order dated October 24, 2019 passed by the Adjudicating Officer (‘AO’ for short) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (‘SEBI’ for short) imposing penalty of Rs. 20 lakh under Section 15H of the SEBI Act for failure to make a public announcement in terms of Regulation 10 of SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 1997 read with Regulation 35(2) of SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011. The appeal was filed sometimes in January 2022.

There is an inordinate delay in the filing of the appeal. The reason given for condoning the delay is that the multiple orders have been passed by the authority against the appellants and limitation period was running simultaneously in all those orders. Further, the bank accounts were frozen and therefore on account of the aforesaid factor the appeal could not be filed within the stipulated period.

Having heard the learned counsel for the appellant, we are not satisfied with the ground shown for condoning the delay. Admittedly, the appellant has been filing the appeals before this Tribunal from time to time but in the instant case there has been an inordinate delay for which sufficient cause has not been shown. Consequently, on the ground of laches we dismiss the appeal as also the miscellaneous application with no order as to costs.

The present matter was heard through video conference due to Covid-19 pandemic. At this stage it is not possible to sign a copy of this order nor a certified copy of this order could be issued by the registry. In these circumstances, this order will be digitally signed by the Private Secretary on behalf of the bench and all concerned parties are directed to act on the digitally signed copy of this order. Parties will act on production of a digitally signed copy sent by fax and/or email.