New Delhi: The Central government has told the Madras High Court that the candidature of Ramesh Abhishek, who retired as Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade last year, will not be considered for the post of Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
The government’s submission came on a writ petition, challenging the possible candidature of Abhishek, a 1982-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, to head the markets regulator.
The writ petition, filed by T. Palpandi under the Constitution’s Article 226, sought the Madras High Court’s direction to the government to ensure that the person is appointed as the SEBI Chairman should be a person of high standing, integrity and dedicated to protecting the interest of investors.
The petition also sought not to consider Abhishek, who was the former Chairman of Forward Markets Commission (FMC), for the coveted position.
When the matter came up for hearing last week before a divisional bench, comprising of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice R. Hemalatha, counsel for the Central Government, N. Ramesh, submitted that Abhishek has not applied for the post of the Chairman of SEBI and, therefore, there is no question of short-listing him for the said post and considering him. Following the clarification and submission by the Central government, the Madras High Court disposed of the writ petition.
Notably, 63 moons technologies had also filed a criminal complaint with the CBI and the Lokpal against IAS officers Abhishek and K.P. Krishnan, and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. The complaint by 63 moons said that the actions of Abhishek, as FMC Chairman, had created the NSEL crisis. Because of the targeted actions of Abhishek, the NSEL crisis, which could have been resolved within seven days, has not resolved for the last seven years, it added.
Despite having given all the powers to take necessary actions to ensure recovery, as per the complaint, the FMC directed all its efforts on crucifying NSEL and its parent company 63 moons, instead of going behind the defaulting entities and brokers who had committed misdeeds on the exchange and solving the case, it said.
The complaint pointed out that Abhishek had misplaced the minutes of a meeting which he held on August 4, 2013, with defaulters and brokers of the now-defunct exchange. In the meeting, the defaulters had confessed to holding the default amount of Rs 5,600 crore and had also agreed to repay it.
