On June 26, The Bombay High Court disposed of a writ petition filed by Essel Group chairman and chairman emeritus of Zee Entertainment, Subhash Chandra. Chandra’s writ petition challenged the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) summons to appear before the regulator. However, the court ordered Chandra to respond to SEBI’s summons issued on March 27 in a funds diversion case, giving him four weeks to respond. The Essel group chairman will have to furnish the documents sought by SEBI.
SEBI had alleged that Chandra was trying to stop the probe by not responding to its January 12 summons.
SEBI has been investigating alleged fund diversions by Chandra and his son Punit Goenka who is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ZEEL. In a confirmatory order in August 2023, the market regulator had barred both of them from holding key positions in four group firms.
On January 12, SEBI summoned Chandra in its ongoing probe. Chandra then filed a writ petition against the summons issued by the SEBI in Bombay HC and stated that the summons did not comply with the provisions of the SEBI Act.