Rajesh vs Sebi

Date of Decision : 11.10.2019

Misc. Application No. 156 of 2019 And Appeal No. 95 of 2019

Rajesh H. No. 44-45, First Floor, PKT - 7, Sector - 24, Rohini, Delhi - 110 085. .....Appellant

Versus

1.

Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI Bhavan, Plot No. C-4A, G Block, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai - 400 051.

2. National Stock Exchange of India Exchange Plaza, Block G, C 1, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai - 400 051. ... Respondents

Mr. Saurabh Bachhawat, Advocate i/b Mr. Harsh Kesaria, Advocate for the Appellant.

Mr. Anubhav Ghosh, Advocate with Ms. Rashi Dalmia, Advocate i/b The Law Point for the Respondent No. 1. Mr. Rashid Boatwalla, Advocate with Ms. Shreya Anuwal, Advocate i/b Manilal Kher Ambalal & Co. for the Respondent No. 2. 2

CORAM : Justice Tarun Agarwala, Presiding Officer Dr. C. K. G. Nair, Member Justice M. T. Joshi, Judicial Member

Per : Justice Tarun Agarwala, Presiding Officer (Oral)

1. The present appeal has been filed against the order of National

Stock Exchange of India (hereinafter referred to as, 'NSE') dated

February 10, 2017. There is a delay of 709 days in filing the appeal.

Consequently, an application has been filed for condoning the delay.

The ground urged is that pursuant to the impugned order a Writ

Petition was filed before the Delhi High Court and subsequently, it

was withdrawn to enable him to file an appeal before the Securities

Appellate Tribunal (SAT). It was further contended that Appeal No.

153 of 2017 was filed by the appellant alongwith two others but

during the course of hearing of the said appeal, a plea was made by

the appellant for withdrawal of this appeal with liberty to file afresh

as his appeal was distinguishable from the case of the other

appellants. This Tribunal by an order dated May 17, 2018 granted

this liberty to the appellant to file afresh.

2. Instead of filing the appeal immediately thereafter, the present

appeal was filed after more than nine months in February 2019. 3

3. The learned counsel for the appellant, in the light of the

aforesaid facts prayed that the delay in filing the appeal was on

account of the aforesaid facts and also on account of the fact that

they were awaiting some orders from Securities and Exchange Board

of India (hereinafter referred to as, 'SEBI') on the subject in

question.

4. Having heard the learned counsel for the parties, we do not find

any sufficient ground to condone this inordinate delay in filing the

present appeal. We find that SEBI had already passed some orders

prior to the order passed by this Tribunal on May 17, 2018. This plea

of the appellant that they were awaiting orders of SEBI is patently

erroneous. We are further of the opinion that when liberty was

granted by this Tribunal to withdraw the appeal and file a fresh

appeal, the same should have been done at the earliest opportune

moment. Taking nine months to file an appeal cannot be justified

under any circumstances. This inordinate delay cannot be condoned

especially when no sufficient cause / reason has been brought

forward.

4

5. In the light of the aforesaid, we do not find any reason to

condone the delay. The application for condonation of delay is

rejected as a result of which the appeal is also dismissed with no

order as to costs.

Sd/-

Justice Tarun Agarwala Presiding Officer

Sd/-

Dr. C. K. G. Nair Member

Sd/-

Justice M. T. Joshi Judicial Member

11.10.2019 Prepared & Compared by PTM