SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch skips Parliamentary panel’s questioning, meeting adjourned

The parliamentary panel investigating Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch adjourned the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) questioning after the SEBI chief informed she would skip it due to “personal exigencies.”

The SEBI officials are being questioned regarding stock regulators’ performance in the wake of serious allegations from US-based Hindenburg Research.

The meeting, which was supposed to be held in Delhi on Thursday at 11 am, has been adjourned, The Indian Express reported.

SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch was denied exemption

The panel that consists of both ruling and opposition members was supposed to grill Buch and a team of 3-4 senior officials. The officials were anticipated to face grave scrutiny as despite SEBI’s inquiry regarding the necessity of the chairperson’s attendance, the panel had insisted on Buch’s presence.

The committee is formed to review the regulatory board’s performance, while opposition MPs are determined to delve into the allegations against Buch.

Agenda of PAC meeting

The agenda of the meeting was to review oral evidence of representatives of the finance ministry and the Securities and Exchange Board of India as part of the committee’s decision to go for the “performance review of regulatory bodies established by Act of Parliament”, PTI reported quoting sources.

“Oral evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of Communications, Department of Telecommunications and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on the subject, ‘Performance Review of Regulatory Bodies established by Act of Parliament’,” sources added.

Allegations against SEBI Chief Buch

In the last few months, the Sebi chief faced a slew of allegations – first from short-seller Hindenburg and later from the opposition Congress party— regarding her investments in offshore funds linked to the Adani Group and code of conduct violations.

Earlier in September this year, in a joint statement, SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch out rightly termed the allegations labeled against them in the recent past as “false, incorrect, malicious and motivated”.