NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday cleared Reliance Industries (RIL) of the charge of making an illegal and undue gain of Rs 447 crore in 2007 while trading in Reliance Petroleum (RPL) shares by allegedly manipulating prices and set aside Securities Appellate Tribunal’s order allowing disgorgement of the profit.RIL had earned Rs 5,013 crore, Rs 4,500 cr from sales in the cash segment and Rs 513 cr from the trades made by the 12 independent entities in Nov 2007 future segment. RIL had entered into agreements with 12 entities to take up sales positions of 9.92 cr RPL shares in Nov 2007 future segment. Though the bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan absolved RIL of committing any fraud, it faulted RIL for attempting to capitalise on the absence of position limits for ‘persons acting in concert’ in 2001 Sebi circular by establishing agency relationships with 12 entities.“We uphold the penalty levied by the WTM and SAT in its majority judgment as regards the violation of the 2001 Sebi circular,” it said. However, the bench gave a major reprieve to RIL by setting aside SAT’s Nov 5, 2020 judgment concerning finding of fraud by RIL.RIL would be happy to get away with a reprimand as the court found that the corporate giant cannot be accused of breaching the Sebi (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices Relating to Securities Market) Regulations. Writing a 136-page judgment, Justice Pardiwala said, “RIL cannot shield its actions behind the argument that the 2001 Sebi circular did not provide any position limits for ‘persons acting in concert’. We say so because the very stipulation of position limits in the Circular creates an implicit duty to disclose such trades that may be in breach of such limits.”
