T. S. Krishnan And Others vs Securities And Exchange Board Of India

Tarun Agarwala, Presiding Officer

The parents of Uma Karthikeyan have filed the present appeal questioning the freezing of their bank accounts which has been caused by the fact

that Uma Karthikeyan was penalized by an order dated January 2, 2019 passed by the Whole time Member (hereinafter referred to as ‘WTM’)

of Securities and Exchange Board of India (hereinafter referred to as ‘SEBI’) and November 29, 2019 passed by the Adjudicating Officer

(hereinafter referred to as ‘AO’) pursuant to which the bank accounts of the appellants alongwith the daughter have been frozen.

The contention of the appellants is that they are not defaulters and have nothing to do with the impugned order that has been passed against the

appellants.

Shri Mihir Mody, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent states on instruction that the specific instructions were issued to the

bank to only freeze the single account of Uma Karthikeyan who is the alleged defaulter and in spite of specific instructions being issued, it transpires

that the joint accounts of the parents alongwith their daughter have been frozen.

In the light of the aforesaid statement being made by the learned counsel for the respondent, we dispose of the appeal directing the respondent to

furnish a copy of the instructions so issued by them to the bank to the appellants within 48 hours. The appellants on the basis of the letter issued by the

respondent will serve the said letter of the respondent alongwith a request to defreeze their bank accounts and we hope that the bank will do the

needful within 24 hours thereafter. We also direct that the respondent shall also intimate the respondent bank to do the needful.

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.