TaxTMI 
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2025 (6) TMI 541
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....RDER Per : Justice P. S. Dinesh Kumar, Presiding Officer This appeal is directed against hearing notice dated March 12, 2025 issued to the appellant by the AO (Adjudicating officer), SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) under Section 15 I of the SEBI Act read with Rule 4 (3) of the SEBI (Procedure for Holding Inquiry and Imposing Penalties) Rules, 1995. 2. Brief facts of the case as per pleadings are: (i) The appellant is the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank Limited. SEBI issued a Show Cause Notice (SCN) dated May 23, 2018 to the appellant (Noticee No. 1) and the ICICI Bank Limited (Noticee No.2). Appellant filed a detailed response and written submissions. A personal hearing was provided, how....
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.... to the amended SCN by March 7, 2025. On March 7, 2025 appellant requested for the copies of the submissions made by ICICI Bank in the ongoing parallel proceedings and also to provide data from ICICI Bank's Secretarial portal and electronic data stored on ICICI Bank's servers. Final personal hearing was scheduled on March 26, 2025. (vi) Appellant has approached this Tribunal with the prayers inter alia, to set aside the hearing notice dated March 12, 2025; to direct the SEBI to grant inspection; to provide copies of SCN/amended SCN issued to ICICI Bank, all replies, written submissions, documents filed by ICICI Bank under the SCN/amended SCN and data on ICICI Bank's Secretarial Portal, servers and devices which form the basis of amended S....
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.... a Civil Court under CPC, inter alia in respect of discovery and production of documents under Rule 1,3 and 5 of Order 11 of CPC, 1908 and that any party can seek directions from the Hon'ble Court at any stage for inspection or production of documents by any other party who has refused to provide the same and exemplary costs may be imposed upon him for such refusal. * SEBI's suppression of the relevant documents and information is in violation of law laid down in T. Takano v. SEBI (Paras 44, 50,51 & 62 of T. Takano v. SEBI, 2022 SCC Online SC 210, decided on February 18,2022 by Hon'ble Supreme Court of India.), Milind Patel v. Union Bank of India (Paras 25 & 26 of Milind Patel v. Union Bank of India, 2024 SCC Online Bom 745, decided on Ma....
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....blished principle and practice, the respondent cannot grant access to the documents submitted by ICICI Bank. The information provided by ICICI Bank includes confidential details which cannot be disclosed without the consent of ICICI Bank. * ICICI Bank is not a party to amended SCN and the respondent affirms that none of the content submitted by ICICI Bank shall be relied upon by the respondent against the appellant. The charges and legal provisions under which ICICI Bank was charged are totally different from that of the appellant. * That the data available on ICICI Bank's Secretarial Portal and servers is the property which belongs to the ICICI Bank and not within the possession of the respondent. Respondent is unable to provide access....
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....e present case, respondent is independently proceeding against the appellant on the same cause of action/facts in which both the appellant and the Bank are facing enquiry. The respondents have initiated parallel proceedings against ICICI Bank as well as the appellant. 9. There should be absolute fair practice on part of the quasi-judicial authority while conducting an enquiry. The fundamental principle is that any material which has not been brought to his notice, cannot be used against a delinquent. In Kanwar Natwar Singh v. Director of Enforcement (Paragraph No.23 of Kanwar Natwar Singh v. Director of Enforcement, (2010) 13 SCC 255 decided on October 5, 2010), the Hon'ble Supreme Court held: "The right to fair hearing is a guaranteed r....