Mumbai: As SAT hears DLF's appeal against a Sebi order, original complainant against the realty firm, Kimsuk Sinha, Thursday told the Tribunal that he has been allowed to be heard in the present case.
It was a complaint by Sinha that eventually led to the market regulator launching a probe into alleged irregularities in the realty firm's IPO documents way back in 2007.
Sebi finally debarred DLF and its six top executives in October this year from the capital markets for three years after finding the company in violation of disclosure norms with regard to its Initial Public Offer (IPO).
After DLF approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against the Sebi order later in October, Sinha had also sought to be made a party in the case before the Tribunal. However, SAT had dismissed Sinha's intervention petition earlier this month.
As SAT heard DLF's submission in the case today, Sinha told the tribunal that he has been allowed by the Supreme Court to be heard in the present case.
Arguing his case, DLF's counsel Janak Dwarkadas told the Tribunal that the Sebi order has come as a capital punishment for his client and wondered why the regulator should punish a company and thousands of its employees with such harsh measures.
The SAT will begin hearing Sebi's arguments tomorrow.
Dwarkadas also quoted from a Sebi-appointed independent panel's report by noted auditor and tax expert Shailesh Haribhakti that there was no need for companies to disclose the names of all their subsidiaries and associates companies in their annual reports and other regulatory filings if they have no real value.
Defending non-disclosure of the names of three subsidiaries, DLF counsel said they had no real assets and that setting up subsidiaries is a general practice among all developers in the country as part of land cost management and ease of land procurement.
Sinha, in his original petition before the Delhi High Court and Sebi had alleged that one of the DLF subsidiaries, Sudipti Estates, and certain other persons, had duped him of Rs 34 crore in a land deal.
Following his complaint, the High Court had ordered Sebi to probe the allegations.
