RTI Appeal pertaining to SEBI LODR Regulations dismissed

RTI Appeal pertaining to SEBI LODR Regulations dismissed

The Appellate Authority under the RTI (Right to Information) Act, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has dismissed an Appeal pertaining to an application filed by Amar Kakaria (Appellant) and received by the CPIO, SEBI, Mumbai (Respondent) through RTI MIS Portal under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). The respondent, by a letter, had responded to the application filed by the appellant.

The appellant filed an appeal against the said response. The appellant, vide his application had sought certain information pertaining to the action taken by SEBI to provide relief to thousands of promoters whose accounts were illegally frozen.

The appellant also asked to inform about the action taken by SEBI for providing compensation to promoters who had lost opportunities to book profits on their frozen portfolio when the market was high and then cover it again, due to mistake of stock exchanges and / or depositories.

It was requested that the appellant be informed about action taken by SEBI on NSDL for illegally defaming thousands of promoters through its portal by publicly displaying their names under accounts frozen based on SEBI orders and also about action taken by SEBI on stock exchanges and / or depositories for misuse of powers by disregarding SEBI LODR.

The respondent, in response to the application, informed that SEBI had not given any mandate to Exchanges/ Depositories with regard to the freezing of promoters accounts for non-payment of Annual Listing fee to the exchanges. Further, it was informed that the role of SEBI was to advise Exchanges to have common criteria in order to avoid any arbitrage.

The appellant had filed this appeal on the ground that incomplete, misleading or false information was provided. The appellant, in his appeal, had reiterated his queries mentioned in his earlier application.

The Appellate Authority noted that the respondent had clearly provided the information regarding the limited role of SEBI with respect to the matter referred by the appellant.

It was observed that the respondent had adequately provided the information available with him. In view of the same, the Authority did not find any deficiency in the response.

Upon consideration of the appeal, it appeared that the appellant had grievance regarding freezing of demataccounts towards recovery of Annual Listing Fees. In this context, it was noted that the Hon'ble CIC, in the matter of Sh. Triveni Prasad Bahuguna vs. LIC of India, Lucknow had held that the redressal of grievance did not fall within the ambit of the RTI Act rather it was up to the Appellant to approach the correct grievance redressal forum.

In view of these observations, it was concluded that if the appellant had any grievance, the remedy for the same would not lie under the provisions of the RTI Act. In view of these observations, it was held find that there was no need to interfere with the decision of the respondent.