₹80L penalty on SEBI, BSE, NSE

The Bombay High Court (HC) recently imposed a collective cost of Rs 80 lakh on the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for the “unlawful freezing” of demat accounts of a city-based gynaecologist and his nonresident Indian (NRI) son.

The court held that action against Dr Pradeep Mehta and his son, Neil, is illegal and invalid on grounds of severe procedural flaws and violations of constitutional rights. “The freezing of the petitioner’s demat account qua (including) all the shares held by him was unwarranted, unjustified and in patent defiance of the principles of natural justice and brazenly illegal,” a bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and Firdosh Pooniwalla said on August 26.