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Tata Steel penalty: Supreme Court rejects Sebi appeal

The SC on Friday dismissed the Securities and Exchange Board of India's appeal against an appellate tribunal order, which had overturned a ₹2-lakh penalty imposed on Tata Steel over disclosure lapses by Bhushan Steel that the company had acquired. Debt-laden Bhushan Steel was taken over by Tata Steel through the insolvency process in 2018 and renamed Tata Steel BSL.

While upholding tribunal's December order, justice Sanjiv Khanna said the penalty amount was too small for the market regulator to challenge it before the apex court. But it left the question of law open on whether penalty could be levied on the new management. Issue has been raised in various other appeals and is pending before the SC.

SAT (Securities Appellate Tribunal), while quashing penalty order in February last year, had held Bhushan Steel had gone into insolvency in July 2017 and, under the IBC, no penalty could be levied on the new management which came into the picture on May 18, 2018.