SAT to move to new premises in Mumbai in 2 months, say lawyers
Informist, Wednesday, May 15, 2024
By Rajesh Gajra
MUMBAI – The Securities Appellate Tribunal will move to bigger premises in Mumbai's Nariman Point area within a couple of months, according to two advocates working for different securities law firms. A visit by Informist to the new premises on the first floor of Mittal Court showed the tribunal's name already affixed at the entrance.
Appeals piled up at the Securities Appellate Tribunal in Jan-Apr as the tribunal was functioning without a judicial member. Appeals cannot be decided by just one member. The sole member during this period was Meera Swarup, technical member.
The previous judicial member, Tarun Agarwala, who was also the presiding officer, left at the end of December, when his term expired. The tribunal did not have a third member when Agarwala was the presiding officer. On Apr 29, two new members, whose appointments had been announced earlier by the government, took their positions at the tribunal. P.S. Dinesh Kumar, a retired high court judge, joined as presiding officer while Dheeraj Bhatnagar, a retired principal chief commissioner of income tax, joined as a technical member.
Currently, the tribunal operates from its fourteenth floor office at Earnest House in Nariman Point, which is much smaller than the new premises. The shift is aimed at accommodating the rising number of documents at the tribunal and to speed up its work, which will help to reduce the high pendency of cases.
The two advocates told Informist that much of the work inside the new premises has been completed. There will be two courtrooms with larger seating spaces for litigants, advocates, and members of the public, they said. The tribunal's functioning is expected to become smoother and faster after it moves to the new, larger premises.
"The rapid growth in number of market participants and listed companies, and the increase in volume of financial transactions, brings with it the likelihood of an increased number of disputes pertaining to regulatory non-compliance, market conduct, corporate governance, and shareholders," said Vaibhav Kakkar, senior partner at Saraf & Partners. The tribunal should be equipped with additional benches and improved infrastructure to manage the escalating caseload and deliver timely, fair verdicts in an increasingly complex market environment, he said.
Currently, the tribunal has only one bench, but it has the scope to add one more. As per the rules, the presiding officer has the power to set up a second bench. But the rule requires every bench to have at least one judicial member and one technical member. With two new members joining the tribunal at the end of April, it has three members now, one a judicial member who is also the presiding officer and two technical members.
But the finance ministry is in the process of appointing a second judicial member. In February, the Department of Economic Affairs at the ministry issued a vacancy circular for the position. After a name is shortlisted, the ministry will have to get approval for the appointment from the Supreme Court.
Judicial members of the Securities Appellate Tribunal typically are former high court judges. Though the rules allow for an advocate with at least 10 years of financial sector litigation experience to be appointed as judicial members, the government has tended to prefer high court judges for the position. End
