SAT admits Chitra Ramkrishna's plea; directs her, NSE to deposit money

The Securities Appellate Tribunal SAT has admitted former NSE chief Chitra Ramkrishnas plea against a Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI order in relation to governance lapses at the bourse and directed her to deposit an amount of Rs 2 crore The appellate tribunal also directed NSE to deposit more than Rs 4 crore towards leave encashment and deferred bonus of Ramkrishna in an escrow account as against SEBIs direction where the amount was to be parked in the Investor Protection Fund TrustIn an order dated February 11 that had wider ramifications SEBI slapped a penalty of Rs 3 crore on Ramkrishna for alleged governance lapses in a case related to the appointment of Anand Subramanian as the Group Operating Officer and Advisor when she was at the helm of NSE as its Managing Director and Chief Executive OfficerBesides the watchdog had asked NSE to forfeit the excess leave encashment of Rs 154 crore and the deferred bonus of Rs 283 crore of Ramkrishna and the amount was to be deposited in the Investor Protection Fund Trust Passing a fourpage order dated April 11 after accepting an appeal filed by Ramkrishna SAT said that various questions raised would be considered at the time of hearing of the appealIt also directed SEBI to submit its reply within four weeks SAT has listed the case for hearing on June 30 However considering the fact and circumstances that has been brought on record and to balance the equities as well as balance of convenience we direct NSE to deposit Rs 473 crore towards leave encashment and deferred bonus of the appellant in an escrow account of instead of depositing it in the Investor Protection Fund Trust SAT saidIt also noted that such a deposit in the escrow account would be subject to the result of the appeal Further SAT directed Ramkrishna to deposit a sum of Rs 2 crore within six weeks from today April 11 If such an amount is deposited the balance amount shall not be recovered during the pendancy of the appeal it noted and dismissed the stay application Ramkrishnas counsel C S Vaidyanathan contested SEBIs decision to levy fine under Section 23A of the Securities Contract Regulation Act SCRAHe argued that this provision being prospective could not apply to any violation which was committed prior to the amending Act and therefore the penalty under this head was incorrect and could not be sustainedAccording to the counsel SEBIpassed the order without granting an opportunity of hearing which was violative of Article 14 Constitution of IndiaFurther he argued that the regulator had no power to interfere in the autonomy or internal management of NSE Limited Apart from penalising Ramkrishna in the governance lapses case SEBIhad imposed penalty on Ravi Narain who was the predecessor of Ramkrishna and othersFurther Ramkrishna has been restrained from associating with any market infrastructure institution or any intermediary registered with SEBIfor a period of three years while the same for Narain is two years In its 190page order passed on February 11 SEBIfound that Ramkrishna was steered by a yogi dwelling in the Himalayan ranges in the appointment of SubramanianRamkrishna referred the yogi as Sironmani and according to her yogi is a spiritual force who has been guiding her for the past 20 years on personal and professional matters Besides Ramkrishna had shared certain internal confidential information including financial and business plans of NSE dividend scenario financial results with the yogi and even consulted him over the performance appraisals of the exchanges employeesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever