The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday refused to grant interim stay on SEBI’s order against Punit Goenka and Subhash Chandra in the matter of Zee Enterprises barring them from holding any key managerial position in any listed company.
SAT said in its order that an ex parte ad interim order was issued considering the sense of urgency which was infused by a host of circumstances, namely, diversion of funds from a listed company to related parties, which are controlled by the appellants.
“In the absence of any evidence being filed by the appellants before us, we do not find any perversity, irregularity, illegality or irrationality in passing of the impugned order,” SAT said.
“In the absence of any evidence being led by the appellants before this Tribunal to show and prove that the prima facie findings given in the impugned order relating to round tripping of funds by ZEEL through 13 entities within two days is incorrect, we are of the opinion that the appellants should avail the opportunity of filing the objection before the WTM and provide the documents and prove that the funds given by ZEEL to the related entities were for valid consideration and that there was no round tripping of the funds,” SAT said.
“The contention that no prima facie case existed in passing the impugned order is wholly erroneous. The contention that the conclusion of siphoning of the funds cannot be arrived at on the basis of the bank statements is an attractive argument but such contention cannot be considered in view of the fact that a prima facie opinion was arrived at based on objective facts indicating diversion of funds from a listed company which was not in the interest of its shareholders and the investors coupled with the fact that no evidence of any sort has been placed before us to show that the prima facie finding is perverse,” SAT said.
The contention of the appellants that the transaction related to the financial year 2019-20 and therefore there was no tearing hurry to pass such kind of interim order at this stage is not acceptable, it noted.
“There is nothing on record to indicate that the details of the repayment made by the related entities was made known to the SEBI or to the Stock Exchange in 2019-20. These details only surfaced when ZEEL provided the information on May 8, 2023. Thus, prima facie at this stage there is no delay in the passing of the impugned order,” the order said.
SEBI had pointed out in its reply in the matter of Zee Enterprises to SAT that Chairman Emeritus and Managing Director and CEO of this large listed company have diverted public money to private entities.
“In the instant case, we have a situation before us where the Chairman Emeritus and the Managing Director and CEO of this large listed company are involved in a myriad of different schemes and transactions through which vast amounts of public money belonging to listed companies are diverted to private entities owned and controlled by these persons,” SEBI said in its reply to SAT.
Subhash Chandra and Punit Goenka had moved SAT against the SEBI order barring them from holding director positions or key management posts in any listed company on alleged siphoning of funds from Zee Enterprises.
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