HC directs SEBI to decide complaint on Reliance Power IPO

Mumbai, Nov 1 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today refused to intervene in a matter alleging fraud of more than Rs 9000 crore being comitted by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group in the proposed IPO of their group company, Reliance Power Ltd. and disposed of the petition with direction to the Securities and Exchange Board of India(SEBI) to decide the concerned complaint as expeditiously as possible.

An investors association, Rajkot Shahar/Jilla Grahak Suraksha Mandal, had filed the Public Interest Litigation alleging that the promoters of Reliance Power Ltd. had tried to subvert SEBI rules to evade more than Rs 9254 crore required to be invested by them towards promoters contribution under SEBI norms.

When the matter came up before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice D Y Chandrachud, Mr K T S Tulsi, appearing for the petitioners, said that generally complaints are made after something happened and investigations are conducted after the frauds are comitted. In this case, the petitioners have pointed out an alleged fraud when it was being comitted.

Before he could further his averments, the court pointed out that the petitioner association had filed complaints with SEBI on October 18 and with the Company Law Board on the next day and said that there was no reason to believe that SEBI would not act on their representations. Upon which the Senior Counsel urged that SEBI be restrained from scheduling the IPO for at least two weeks after their representation was decided. But the court turned him down and simply directed SEBI to decide the complaint filed by the petitioner association expeditiously and disposed of the petition.

Counsel for the Reliance Energy questioned the motive behind the filing of the petition, saying that the second and third petitioners Pradip Nambiar and Bhupendra Singh, respectively, had became shareholders of the company only while filing the complaints.

UNI