BJP MP objects to suggestion to call SEBI chief to depose before PAC

PAC reviews SEBI performance, demands chairperson's deposition amid conflict of interest allegations, sparking debate on regulatory oversight.

With the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) setting the agenda to review the performance of “regulatory bodies established by Acts of Parliament”, PAC member and Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy, at the committee’s meeting on Tuesday, demanded that Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, who faced allegations of conflict of interest, be called in to depose. 

Tuesday’s agenda for the meeting was to review an audit report of the Jal Jeevan Mission. 

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SEBI was established by a 1992 Act of Parliament.

According to sources, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey objected to Mr. Roy’s demand, claiming that the PAC rules did not permit such an investigation. 

Mr. Dubey argued at the meeting that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the principal auditor, could not audit SEBI without the mandate of the Central government, hence the PAC too could not summon officials of regulators without evidence of “flaws” in finances provided by the government. He further said that even for the PAC to take suo motu cognisance, there should be evidence of wrongdoing. 

In January 2023, the Hindenburg Research alleged “stock price manipulation” by the Adani Group. On March 2, 2023, the Supreme Court asked SEBI to complete the probe into the allegations made in the report within two months. On August 10 this year, the Hindenburg Research released another report, alleging that Ms. Buch had a stake in obscure offshore entities used in what it alleged was the Adani money siphoning scandal. Ms. Buch has categorically denied the allegations.