Aug 11, 2006
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Orders :
Orders of SAT
IN THE SECURITIES APPELLATE TRIBUNAL
MUMBAI
Misc. Application No. 20/2006
IN
Appeal No. 95/2006
Noted Infotech Pvt. Ltd. ….Appellant
Versus
Securities & Exchange Board of India ….Respondent
Mr. P. K. Gupta, Representative of the appellant
Dr. Poornima Advani, Advocate for the respondent
Order
This appeal is directed against the order dated December 10, 2003 passed by the adjudicating officer imposing a penalty of Rs.1 crore on the appellant for not complying with the summons issued repeatedly thereby withholding crucial information during the course of the investigation proceedings. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (for short the Board) was investigating into the alleged price rigging and market manipulation of the scrips of Iris Infrastructurals Ltd., Sai Mangal Investrade Ltd. and Shonkh Technologies Ltd. and it was during the course of this investigation that the appellant did not comply with the summons and is alleged to have withheld material information from the Board.
2. There is a delay of 720 days in filing the present appeal. The memorandum of appeal is accompanied by an application seeking condonation of the delay. The only two grounds on which the delay is sought to be condoned is that an employee of the appellant company who was looking after its affairs had left the service and did not hand over the impugned order to the management and this fact came to its notice only when it was searching some other papers. It is further stated that it was then that the appellant came to know that an appeal had to be filed and it contacted a lawyer to have the memorandum of appeal prepared. Another ground on which the delay is sought to be condoned is that the appellant could not arrange the amount of Rs. 50, 700/- which is the filing fee before this Tribunal.
3. We have heard the learned representative of the appellant and the learned counsel appearing for the respondent Board and having perused the application are of the view that the reasons mentioned therein do not make out a sufficient cause for not filing the appeal within time. The fact that an employee had left the service of the appellant company is by itself no ground to condone this inordinate delay. Moreover, this plea is vague and the appellant has not furnished any particulars thereof. The appellant has filed the present appeal along with a court fee of Rs. 50, 700/- after arranging this amount and no reason has been stated as to why the said amount could not have been arranged earlier. It appears that the appellant took the matter very casually and is guilty of culpable negligence in not filing the appeal in time. No sufficient cause has been shown for this inordinate delay and, therefore, we have no hesitation in rejecting the application.
In the result the application seeking condonation of delay is dismissed.
Sd/-
Justice N. K. Sodhi
Presiding Officer
Sd/-
C. Bhattacharya
Member
Sd/-
R. N. Bhardwaj
Member
IN THE SECURITIES APPELLATE TRIBUNAL
MUMBAI
Appeal No. 95/2006
Date of Decision: 11/08/2006
Noted Infotech Pvt. Ltd. ….Appellant
Versus
Securities & Exchange Board of India ….Respondent
Mr. P. K. Gupta, Representative of the appellant
Dr. Poornima Advani, Advocate for the respondent
CORAM
Justice N. K. Sodhi, Presiding Officer
C. Bhattacharya, Member
R. N. Bhardwaj, Member
Per: Justice N. K. Sodhi, Presiding Officer (Oral)
There is a delay of 720 days in filing the appeal. By an order passed today, the application seeking condonation of delay has been dismissed. Consequently the appeal is dismissed as barred by time.
Sd/-
Justice N. K. Sodhi
Presiding Officer
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C. Bhattacharya
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SR. N. Bhardwaj
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Member
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Member
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