Sebi dismisses more RTI queries in FY10

My Digital fc ; Rajesh Gajra ; Sep 05 2010 ;

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) saw a year-on-year increase of eight

per cent in applications for information under the Right to Information Act, 2005, during FY10, as per its annual report released recently.

There was a higher y-o-y increase of 15 per cent cases of dissatisfied RTI applicants filing appeals with Sebi’s appellate authority (AA) against replies by Sebi’s central public information officer (CPIO).

The increase was still higher in the AA-dismissed cases being appealed with against CCIC (see table).

The RTI cases involved matters concerning Sebi’s own actions and data, as well as cases seeking Sebi to extract information about third-party entities, who generally are stock market intermediaries such as brokers. In the latter cases, Sebi rejected every RTI query contending it was not obli¬ged to collect information from intermediaries on request from a RTI applicant.

The same reason was given in a recent dismissal dated August 17 by Sebi’s current AA, Prashant Saran. But, in his ruling, Saran also stated the CIC had ruled in affirmative on the question of Sebi accessing information from exchanges and brokers under its regulatory control for the sole purpose of providing the same to RTI applicants. He rejected the investor's appeal saying Sebi had got a stay in the Bombay HC against the CIC’s ruling.