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Judgment
An urgent mention was made yesterday stating that during the pendency of the appeal certain amounts have been withdrawn from their demat
account for recovery pursuant to the impugned orders of the Adjudicating Officer (“AO†for convenience) and Whole Time Member
(“WTM†for convenience). Accordingly, the two applications that was filed was directed to be taken up today.
We have heard the learned senior counsels for the parties. By an order dated March 03, 2021 we had stayed the impugned orders of the AO and
WTM subject to the condition that the appellant will deposit a sum of Rs. 10 crores within five weeks and further we allowed the appellants to sell the
shares from their demat account which had been frozen. Further extension was given by this Court by an order of April 20, 2021 and time to deposit
the amount was extended till May 25, 2021. It is contended by the appellants that the amount could not be deposited as both the directors of the
appellant-company had tested positive of the corona virus and accordingly necessary steps to sell the shares could not be taken. As a result, a further
Misc. Application No. 665 of 2021 was filed on May 25, 2021 which is pending consideration and, in the meanwhile, a sum of Rs. 58.90 lakhs worth of
shares were sold on July 02, 2021 and yesterday while mentioning was being made by the learned senior counsel for the appellant another set of
shares worth approximately Rs. 89 lakhs have been sold off.
In the light of the aforesaid, we direct the Recovery Officer not to proceed with the recovery of any amount pursuant to the impugned orders of the
AO and WTM till the next date of listing. We also direct the respondent to file an affidavit of the Recovery Officer indicating the extent of the shares
sold from the demat account of the appellants. We also direct the Recovery Officer to file an affidavit with regard to the procedure followed by him
for the sale of the shares as per Section 28A of the SEBI Act read with the Income Tax Rules. Such affidavit should be filed on or before the next
date which is July 13, 2021. Misc. Application Nos. 665 of 2021 and 666 of 2021 are disposed of accordingly.
Parties are directed to take instructions from the Registrar 48 hrs. before the date fixed in order to find out as to whether the matters would be
taken up for hearing through video conference or through physical hearing.
The present matters were heard through video conference due to Covid-19 pandemic. At this stage it is not possible to sign a copy of this order nor
a certified copy of this order could be issued by the Registry. In these circumstances, this order will be digitally signed by the Private Secretary on
behalf of the bench and all concerned parties are directed to act on the digitally signed copy of this order. Parties will act on production of a digitally
signed copy sent by fax and/or email.