Cifco Finance Limited vs Sebi

BEFORE THE SECURITIES APPELLATE TRIBUNAL MUMBAI Date of Decision : 13.10.2022 Misc. Application No. 808 of 2022 And Appeal No. 619 of 2022 Cifco Finance Limited Bhupen Chambers, Ground Floor, Unit-I, Dalal Street, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001. .....Appellant Versus Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI Bhavan, Plot No. C-4A, G-Block, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai - 400 051. ... Respondent Mr. Devanshu Desai, Advocate for the Appellant. Mr. Vyom Shah, Advocate with Mr. Nishit Dhruva, Mr. Ravishekhar Pandey and Ms. Shefali Shankar, Advocates i/b. MDP & Partners for the Respondent. CORAM : Justice Tarun Agarwala, Presiding Officer Justice M.T. Joshi, Judicial Member Ms. Meera Swarup, Technical Member Per : Justice Tarun Agarwala, Presiding Officer (Oral) 1. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and perused the reply. The appellant has filed the present appeal 2 challenging the order of the Adjudicating Officer ('AO' for short) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India ('SEBI' for short) dated January 18, 2017 wherein a penalty of Rs. 2 lakh has been imposed for non-compliance of the complaint on the SCORES platform.

There is a delay of 2020 days in the filing of the appeal. The ground urged is, that the appellant was never served with the show cause notice or the summons relating to final hearing and that the appellant came to know for the first time when the notice was published in the newspapers on December 22, 2021. 2. In this regard we called for a reply from the respondent and we find that the show cause notice etc was delivered to the Company on their official email id, namely, [email protected]. This email id has not been disputed by the appellant. 3. Rule 7 of the SEBI (Procedure for Holding Inquiry and Imposing Penalties) Rules, 1995 prescribes that the service of notice and orders can be sent through a person by fax or electronic mail or courier or speed post etc. In the instant case the delivery of the show cause notice through email was done in accordance with Rule 7. Since the email id has not been disputed we are of the opinion that the appellant was duly 3 served and consequently was deemed to have knowledge of the proceedings. 4. In view of the aforesaid, there is an inordinate delay in the filing of the appeal.

Such inordinate delay cannot be condoned. The delay application is rejected, as a result of which, the appeal is also dismissed with no order as to costs. 5. 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. Certified copy of this order is also available from the Registry on payment of usual charges. Justice Tarun Agarwala Presiding Officer Justice M.T. Joshi Judicial Member Ms. Meera Swarup Technical Member RAJALA Digitally by signed 13.10.2022 KSHMI NAIR RAJALAKSHMI H Date: 2022.10.14 msb H NAIR 11:25:40 +05'30'