SEBI refuses to provide disclosure data on Mabhabi Puri Buch’s alleged conflict cases: RTI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), in a right-to-information (RTI) response, said on Friday, September 20, that the cases where SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch recused herself due to potential conflict of interest are not “readily” available and collating them would be a “disproportionately divert” of its resources, according to the news agency PTI’s report on Saturday, September 21.

“Further the information on cases where Madhabi Puri Buch recused herself due to potential conflicts of interest during her tenure is not readily available and collating the same will lead to disproportionately diverting the resources of the public authority in terms of Section 7(9) of the RTI Act,” according to the RTI response quoted in the agency report.

SEBI on allegations against Madhabi Buch

The capital markets regulator refused to provide copies of Buch’s declarations to the government and SEBI Board on the financial assets and equities held by her and her family members and stated that it is “personal information,” and disclosure of which may “endanger” personal safety in response to transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), according to the report.

SEBI also denied releasing the dates of those disclosures. The SEBI Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) cited “personal information” and “safety” as grounds for refusing to declare, as per the report.

“Since the information sought do not pertain to you and the same relates to personal information, the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest and mat cause unwarranted invasion into the privacy of the individual and may also endanger the life or physical safety of the person(s). The same is, therefore exempt in terms of Section 8(1)(g) and 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, 2005,” reported the agency quoting the RTI response.

Under Section 8(1)(g), public authorities can withhold information which may have a chance to endanger the life and physical safety of any person, and under Section 8(1)(j) the public authorities can do the same related to disclosure of personal information, which has no relation to the public interest, said the report.

A CPIO may only disclose information in such a case if the public interest in the disclosure outweighs the harm to protect the interests of the individual, said the report.

SEBI’s press release on August 11 alleged that Buch has recused herself in matters involving potential conflict of interest. “It is noted that relevant disclosures required in terms of holdings of securities and their transfers have been made by the Chairperson from time to time,” said SEBI, as per the report.

US-based short seller Hindenburg Research claimed that the capital market regulator’s unwillingness to act against the Adani Group of companies may be due to Buch’s stake in offshore funds linked to the conglomerate, as per the report.

Madhabi Puri Buch’s husband Dhaval Buch allegedly invested in one of the funds which was claimed to be used by Vinod Adani, according to Hindenburg Research. The short seller also alleged Buch’s husbands association with private investor Blackstone, a promoter of many real estate investment trusts (REITs) and SEBI’s continued pitch for the new investment avenue, said there report.

“The allegations made by Hindenburg Research, against the Adani Group, have been duly investigated by Sebi,” said SEBI in their statement.

The Supreme Court of India has noted that in 24 out of 26 probes against Adani Group have been completed in January, one more was finished in March and the last one is close to completion, according to the report.