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Pooja Menghani vs Securities And Exchange Board Of India ... on 8 November, 2021

Bench: R. Subhash Reddy, Hrishikesh Roy

     ITEM NO.27                      Court 11 (Video Conferencing)                  SECTION II-B

                                     S U P R E M E C O U R T O F          I N D I A
                                             RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

     Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.)                         No. 8887/2019

     (Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 22-08-2019
     in CRR No. 2005/2019 passed by the High Court of Calcutta at
     Kolkata)

     POOJA MENGHANI                                                            Petitioner(s)

                                                        VERSUS

     SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE BOARD OF INDIA (SEBI)                             Respondent(s)


     Date : 08-11-2021 This petition was called on for hearing today.

     CORAM :
                               HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE R. SUBHASH REDDY
                               HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HRISHIKESH ROY


     For Petitioner(s)                    Mr.   B. Adinarayana Rao, Sr. Adv.
                                          Mr.   Pramod Kumar, Adv.
                                          Mr.   Nitin Narang, Adv.
                                          Dr.   Amardeep Gaur, Adv.
                                          Mr.   Amlan Kumar Ghosh, AOR

     For Respondent(s)                    Mr. Chander Uday Singh, Sr. Adv.
                                          Mr. Pratap Venugopal, Adv.
                                          Ms. Surekha Raman, Adv.
                                          Ms. Ila sheel, Adv.
                                          Mr. Akhil Abraham Roy, Adv.
                                          Mr. Vijay Valsan, Adv.
                                    for   M/S. K J John And Co, AOR


                                UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
                                                   O R D E R

We have heard Mr. B. Adinarayana Rao, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner and Mr. Chander Uday Singh, learned Senior Counsel for the respondent.

Digitally signed by Rajni Mukhi Date: 2021.11.10

The Adjudicating Officer in exercise of power under 14:39:57 IST Reason: Section 15-I of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act 1 1992, has passed order dated 30.04.2012 against the petitioner imposing a penalty of Rs.1 Crore under Section 15HA of the SEBI Act. The operative portion of the order reads as under:

“23.After taking into consideration all the facts and circumstances of the case, I impose a penalty of Rs.1,00,00,000/- (Rupees one crore only) under Section 15HA of the SEBI Act on the Noticee which will be commensurate with the violations committed by her.

24.The Noticee shall pay the said amount of penalty by way of demand draft in favour of “SEBI – Penalties Remittable to Government of India”, payable at Mumbai, within 45 days of receipt of this order. The said demand draft should be forwarded to Mr.S.V.Krishnamohan, Regional Manager, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Eastern Regional Office (ERO), L&T Chambers, 3rd Floor, 16, Camac Street, Kolkata–700017.“ The said order has become final.

On the ground that the said penalty amount was not paid, the respondent through Assistant Legal Adviser, SEBI filed a Complaint Case No. C/47376 of 2013, u/s. 190 of Cr.P.C., 1973 r/w Section 24 and 27 of the SEBI Act, 1992 before the 5 th Special Court at Calcutta, which is numbered as Special Case No.SEBI/3/2019.

2  When the process is issued in the aforesaid Special Case, the petitioner has questioned the same before the High Court of Calcutta by way of revision in CRR No. 2005 of 2019 on the ground that no part of the cause of action arose in Calcutta, as such, the Special Court at Calcutta has no jurisdiction to entertain the said complaint and to proceed against the petitioner. The High Court has dismissed the Revision Petition by impugned order dated 22.08.2019.

During the pendency of the proceedings before this Court and pursuant to order of this Court dated 25.03.2021, the petitioner has deposited the penalty amount of Rs.1 Crore. In view of such payment, what remained, is only with regard to interest on the said amount of Rs.1 Crore penalty imposed by the Adjudicating Authority. It is the case of the petitioner that the petitioner, an innocent young entrepreneur, entered into security market immediately after completing her MBA Course. It is stated that with great difficulty, the petitioner could mobilize the penalty amount and paid the same. As much as, Adjudicatory Order was passed as early as on 30.04.2012 and further, the petitioner has already paid the entire penalty amount of Rs.100 lakhs during the pendency of this Petition, and to put quietus to the litigation, we deem it appropriate to dispose of the Special Leave Petition by 3 directing the petitioner to deposit a further sum of Rs.10 lakhs towards interest, within a period of eight weeks from today. Upon such deposit, the criminal proceedings initiated against the petitioner in Case No.SEBI/3/2019 on the file of the 5th Special Court, Calcutta stand quashed. It is made clear that this order is passed having regard to peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and the same shall not be treated as precedent for any other case.

This Special Leave Petition is disposed of with directions, as indicated above.

Pending application(s) shall also stand disposed of.

(RAJNI MUKHI)                             (DIPTI KHURANA)
COURT MASTER (SH)                        COURT MASTER (NSH)




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