Sebi sets up panel to review insider trading regulations

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SebiI) on Tuesday said that it has constituted a High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of Justice N K Sodhi, retired Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court and former presiding officer of the Securities Appellate Tribunal, for reviewing the Sebi (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 1992.

Other members are Darius Khambata  (Advocate General of Maharashtra), Rajeev Luthra (Managing Partner, Luthra & Luthra Law Offices), K Venkataramanan (CEO & MD of Larsen & Toubro), Arundhati Bhattacharya (MD& CEO of SBI Capital Markets), Nirmal Jain (India Infoline), Motilal Oswal (Motilal Oswal Financial Services) Milind Barve (AMFI Chairman & MD of HDFC AMC), Rashesh Shah (Edelweiss Group) Deepak Kumar Chatterjee (MD & CEO of SBI Mutual Fund), Mobis Philipose (Columnist of Mint newspaper) Menaka Doshi (CNBC TV 18) and A P Bakliwal (The Bombay Shareholders’ Association), besides three members from Sebi S Raman (Executive Director- Surveillance), R K Padmanabhan(Ex Director Investigations) and J Ranganayakulu (Ex Director-Law) as Secretary of the Committee.

It may be noted that two decades have passed since the Sebi (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 1992  were notified which was framed to deter the practice of insider trading in the securities of listed companies. Since then there have been several amendments to the Regulations and judicial paradigm through case laws have also evolved in India. 

In fact, world over, regulatory focus is shifting towards containing the rising menace of insider trading effectively. To ensure that the regulatory framework dealing with insider trading in India is further strengthened, Sebi seeks review of the extant Insider Trading Regulatory regime in India now.