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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: 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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