SC refuses to direct SEBI to cancel Satyam stocks transactions

The Supreme Court today refused to given any direction to market regulator SEBI and the Bombay Stock Exchange to cancel transactions in shares of scam-tainted Satyam Computer.

The Supreme Court today refused to given any direction to market regulator SEBI and the Bombay Stock Exchange to cancel transactions in shares of scam-tainted Satyam Computer and Chennai-based entertainment firm Pyramid Saimira as sought in a case of Public Interest Litigation.

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PIL, filed by Mohan Lal Sharma, a practising advocate, had sought cancellation of all the transactions between January 6 and 7 on the ground that innocent investors were lured by these companies on buyback announcements and a fraud was committed on them.

The petitioner's arguments failed to impress a Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan-headed bench, which observed, "Make a complaint to SEBI. This is not an appropriate forum."

The advocate said on January 6, media had widely reported about Satyam proposing to buyback its shares and its decision to take up the issue in the board meeting.

According to him, before the decision was taken by the board, IL&FS had sold about 246.6 lakh shares in the market at Rs 176 per share. However, the Satyam shares crashed to close at Rs 30 after Satyam Chairman Ramalinga Raju resigned from the board and confessed to Rs 7,800 crore fraud, he added.

Various investors, including Sharma, had bought the shares following the receipt of the latter by the company.

Within one hour of disclosure, the shares went down to freeze at Rs 61.15 per share, he said, adding SEBI, NSE and BSE had failed to take any action to get purchased shares cancelled.