Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy offer NDTV shares as security to SEBI

Jan 28, 2021 #NDTV #Prannoy Roy #Radhika Roy #SEBI

Tanvi Sinha

The Supreme Court heard the appeals filed by husband and wife, Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy against a SEBI order that pushed them towards paying 50% of their “wrongful gains” brought by insider trading.

Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued for the couple and stated that they, who had originally during the passage of the transaction owned 100% of the shareholdings of their collectively owned news channel NDTV were disinvested and now own only 52%.

The CJI heard them out but asked how much security they would be willing to give on which Mr. Rohatgi stated that they would not transfer any portions of their shares in NDTV without permission of the tribunal, but they had no other resources or security.

Furthermore, it was stated that the money in question was not as valuable as the security he is giving in terms of his shares and their value on the stock exchange as it exceeded 15 crores.

Mr. Rohatgi also stated that they were a struggling news channel who were hit very badly and was willing to take an undertaking to the court in respect of advancing the shareholdings as security.

While the CJI maintained his sympathies, he also stated that he had to give some kind of security or else the tribunal would not be able to hear them and to give the court definite numbers instead of vague assertions.

To this, the instructing counsel for the petitioners explained that the approximate figure would be around 18 crore rupees and hence be a bigger amount for security.

The bench recorded this submission and agreed and asked Rohatgi to file the statement tomorrow.

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