The Bombay high court on June 26 directed Zee founder and chairman emeritus Subhash Chandra to offer documents sought by SEBI in a summons dated March 27 in a fund diversion case. In a verbal order, the court asked Chandra not to respond to SEBI’s January 12 summons but to respond to its March 27 summons.
SEBI had alleged that Subhash Chandra was trying to stop the probe by not responding to its January summons. Through a writ petition, Chandra argued that SEBI’s January summons did not comply with the provisions of the SEBI Act, contained pre-determined and conclusive allegations, and were in the nature of a show cause notice.
SEBI issued fresh summons on March 27 because Subhash Chandra failed to respond to its earlier summons. Chandra’s lawyer said on June 26 that the documents called for in the March summons would be provided to SEBI in four weeks.
