The Bombay High Court (HC) on Tuesday stayed for four weeks a special court's order directing the registration of a first information report (FIR) against former Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and five other officials over accusations of stock market fraud and regulatory violations, noting that the order was passed "mechanically", news agency PTI reported.

A single bench of Justice Shivkumar Dige said the special court order of March 1 also did not attribute any specific role to the accused in the stock market 'fraud' case.

"After hearing all the parties concerned and after going through the order of the special court, it appears that the order is passed mechanically without going into details and without attributing any specific role to the applicants [Buch and others]," Justice Dige said, according to PTI.

"Hence, the order is stayed till next date. Four weeks time is given to the complainant in the case [Sapan Shrivastava] to file his affidavit in reply to the petitions," the court further stated.

PTI reported that the HC's judgment came on petitions filed by Buch, three current whole-time SEBI Directors Ashwani Bhatia, Ananth Narayan G and Kamlesh Chandra Varshney, Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sundararaman Ramamurthy and its former chairman and public interest director Pramod Agarwal.

The pleas sought quashing of the order passed by the special court directing the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to register an FIR against them pertaining to certain allegations of fraud committed in 1994 while listing a company on the BSE.

Stock market 'fraud': Complete non-application of mind by special court in passing order, says Solicitor General  

The pleas said the order was illegal and arbitrary.

The special court had passed the order on the basis of a complaint filed by reporter Sapan Shrivastava, who sought investigation into the alleged offences committed by the accused, involving large-scale financial fraud, regulatory violations and corruption.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the three SEBI officials, said there has been complete non-application of mind by the special court in passing the order.

"Based on a vague and vexatious complaint, the special court has ordered an FIR. For something allegedly done in the year 1994, how can the current members of SEBI be held responsible," Mehta argued.

He claimed that the complainant was an "extortionist" who was working under the garb of being a public spirited person.

Senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing for Ramamurthy and Agarwal, said to take such an action against senior members of BSE was an "attack on the economy itself" especially on such "frivolous" allegations.

Stock market 'fraud': Special court had asked ACB to file status report in 30 days