The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has partly allowed ICICI Bank’s review plea and set aside a portion of its earlier order in the case involving former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar over loans to the Videocon Group. The tribunal had earlier directed SEBI to provide Kochhar access to the bank’s Secretarial Portal and data stored on its servers and devices.
Modifying its previous order, the tribunal ruled that the portal and electronic data were neither in SEBI’s possession nor part of the regulatory record.
ICICI Bank, in its review plea, argued that it was not a party to the original proceedings and was an aggrieved party whose interests were affected by the order. The tribunal also accepted the bank’s contention that Kochhar had not identified any specific document she required from the Secretarial Portal.
The tribunal agreed with the bank’s submission, stating, “any blanket access to the portal may compromise the confidentiality of third-party data. In the case on hand, SEBI has supplied Project Indus Report and the CR Report and other documents relied upon by SEBI” to Kochhar. The tribunal further said it is settled that a noticee is entitled for all those documents which are relied upon.
Kochhar’s counsel argued that ICICI Bank’s review application was not maintainable as the bank was not an ‘aggrieved person’. They also submitted that the bank’s objection to providing access to the Secretarial Portal was untenable because it had granted access to Control Risks India Pvt. Ltd. to prepare its report.