The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on July 27 asked markets regulator SEBI to appoint another whole-time member (WTM) or an authorised person to decide on an alleged fund diversion case at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. SEBI had filed an application before SAT against Zee promoters Subhash Chandra and Punit Goenka seeking appointment of a different whole-time member. Chandra and Goenka had appeared against a June 12 SEBI order passed by a whole-time member.
In its July 27 order, the SAT bench of Justices Tarun Agarwala and Meera Swarup said, “It is not known as to when the Central government will appoint a new WTM. The matter is one of urgency since the appellants have been restrained from acting as directors and/or key managerial personnel of the company… and that is why we have framed the timeline to the WTM to pass an order within a stipulated period.”
The SAT said that in its July 10 order, it had directed the WTM to fix a date of hearing and also directed SEBI to appoint another WTM other than the one who had passed the June 12 order. The counsel for the Zee promoters had argued that SEBI intended to place the issue before an executive director, who is lower in rank to a WTM.