SUBRAMANIAN Vs. SECURITIES & EXCHANGE BOARD OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) APPEAL is taken up with consent of parties. The appellant was the director of Viswapriya Financial Services & Securities Ltd. The respondent purporting to act under Section 11B read with Regulation 11 of SEBI (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices relating to Securities Market) Regulations, 1995 prohibited the appellant as a director of the company in his personal capacity from accessing the capital market and dealing in securities for a period of five years. It is not necessary to deal with the facts of the case.

(2.) THE alleged misconduct was in November 1995. The show cause notice was issued to the company on 13.12.2000. It was submitted by the learned counsel for the respondent that the show cause notice issued to the company would suffice for passing the impugned order against Mr. Subramanian.

(3.) WE cannot persuade ourselves to accept this proposition. The impugned order is directed against Subramanian and no show cause notice was issued to Subramanian in his personal capacity and yet he was banned from the capital market for a period of 5 years. Natural justice requires that show cause notice should be issued against Subramanian if any adverse order is passed against him. In that view of the matter, only insofar as Subramanian is concerned, the impugned order is set aside and the appeal is allowed. No order as to costs.