New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to issue any direction to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) mandating public disclosure of ultimate beneficial owners and portfolios of alternative investment funds (AIFs), foreign portfolio investors and their intermediaries in India.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna, R Mahadevan and DK Upadhyaya, hearing a plea filed by TMC MP Mahua Moitra, said there was no legal regime or any framework in place for any full public disclosure about ultimate beneficial owners.
The bench initially questioned Moitra for filing such a petition, saying she could have raised the issue in Parliament and sought a discussion on it.
The top court said it cannot issue any mandamus without any regime in place and disposed of the plea.
Had there been any legal regime and the SEBI was not following it, the court can direct for compliance but in the absence of any framework or legal regime, the court cannot issue any mandamus, it observed.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing Moitra, contended that even without any regime, the court can direct SEBI for full disclosure of actual beneficiaries of these funds as innocent investors are being manipulated by these investors, who boost up shares of companies.
Moitra, in her PIL, has sought transparency and investor awareness in India’s financial markets by mandating public disclosure of ultimate beneficial owners details as well as portfolio holdings of Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI).
SEBI regulates the securities markets in India, the plea said, and as part of its mandate, the board oversees the operations of AIFs and FPIs.
