SEBI Increasingly Investor Friendly in View of Subhkam Ventures (I) (P.) Ltd. v. SEBI and Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. vs. Jayaram Chigurupati Co. Ltd.

Abstract

Those researching the workings of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, unanimously agree that 2010 was probably the year in which SEBI most vociferously exhibited its pro-corporate investor stand. The reasons for this abrupt pro-investor inclination are many fold, however academic consensus appears to be building around one in particular SEBI’s inherent desire to enhance corporate investor confidence in the Indian capital markets. One mustn’t blame SEBI for harbouring such motives, especially if India hopes to retain a GDP growth of 7 per cent in the face of global recession. Therefore after 2008 (The year of the U.S. Sub-Prime Mortgage crises, believed by many to be the triggering point of the global financial meltdown), SEBI, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) to whom decisions of the SEBI are appealed to, and the Supreme Court (The forum of Second appeal from the SAT) have all played an increasingly activist role in consciously promulgating through their decisions, orders and judgement an investor-friendly environment, albeit in subtle forms. Because the scope of this paper is limited to case studies in the year of 2010, the researcher will concentrate on two Landmark decisions, which aptly further the researchers premise. The researcher felt it appropriate to rely upon the significant decision of the SAT in the case of Subhkam Ventures (I) (P.) Ltd. v. SEBI and the pioneering decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. vs. Jayaram Chigurupati Co. Ltd.