SEBI move for umbrella regulatory tribunal blocked

The initiative by the Securities and Exchange Board of India to bring other regulators within the ambit of the Securities Appellate Tribunal has turned contentious. The SEBI board, which had recently taken up far reaching changes to the SEBI Act, has referred these changes back to the government and called for a wider participation of regulators.

A CNBC-TV18 report says this has been done because certain regulators are not happy with the fact that one of the proposals is to bring all of them within the ambit of the Securities Appellate Tribunal by renaming it the Financial Services Appellate Tribunal.

The proposed reform is important because except for SEBI's orders, none of the other regulators' orders are even put in the public domain. Leave alone having an appellate recourse, everybody has to go to the High Court if they have a problem with orders pased by them.

The regulators have raised certain issues with the government, which means that the process of bringing in these changes is likely to be delayed.
Meanwhile, the union cabinet yesterday raised the retirement age for members of the Securities Appellate Tribunal by three years. They now can hold office up to the age of 65.

"The union cabinet gave its approval to the amendments in Section 15 N of the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992, by way of raising the upper age limit of the members of SAT to 65 years from the earlier 62 years," the government said in a statement.

It said the amendments to the SEBI Act will facilitate utilising the services of officials appointed members of SAT, as normally retired people join the body. ''In the stipulated 62 years of age, a maximum of two years of service is available for such officers in the SAT, resulting in non-utilisation of full and effective services of such officers," the statement said.