Sebi rejects consent plea of RIL, others

Mumbai: Market regulator Sebi has rejected 149 consent applications by various individuals and companies related to about 100 cases related to violations of several rules and regulations dealing with the stock market. 
    These cases include the insider trading case relating to Reliance Petroleum, which has since been merged with Reliance Industries (RIL), insider trading in Indian Petrochemicals (IPCL), which too has been merged with RIL, violations of Sebi's Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices regulations by and HSBC Investdirect, and others. 
    On Thursday, Sebi published the list of all those cases in which consent orders were rejected as of May 25, 2012. 
    "The pending proceedings in these cases will continue in accordance with law. The rejection of consent application, however, shall not prejudice the pending proceedings in any manner," the regulator said. 
    The date is significant because on that day Sebi put in place new and stricter rules for companies to opt for consent orders. 
    The list published on Thursday also showed that Sebi has rejected consent applications by Reliance Petroinvestments, Alaska Mercantile, Manoj Modi and Smita Modi, all of which related to cases of insider trading in the shares of IPCL. Other than this, there were two cases relating to India Infoline, and cases relating to Ramesh Taurani & others relating to Tips Industries, in which the Tauranis are the promoters. 
    The other cases in which applications were rejected related to GMR Holdings, Nilesh Kapadia in a case of frontrunning in HDFC Mutual Fund, Pravin K Tayal, Saurabh Tayal and a host of other entities in several cases related to Bank of Rajasthan, and a case involving Religare Securities for violation of code of conduct for stock brokers. 
Reliance moves SAT against Sebi 
Mumbai: Reliance Industries has approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against market regulator Sebi which has issued show-cause notices to the corporate giant with regard to certain alleged irregularities in its share dealings. 
    RIL's appeal against Sebi was earlier scheduled by SAT for Friday for admission, but the Tribunal has adjourned the hearing to January 11. While details of RIL's appeal before the SAT could not be immediately obtained, Sebi has previously issued show-cause notices to the company in cases involving sale of shares of its erstwhile subsidiary Reliance Petroleum and allotment of shares to certain firms against warrants linked to privately placed debentures issued by RIL. RIL has already replied to Sebi notices in these cases. 
    In the case involving sale of shares of RPL, Sebi is said to have been investigating for a long time the alleged violation of insider trading regulations by RIL. RPL used to be a separately-listed company, but it was later acquired by RIL and the merger process was also completed way back in 2009. PTI