Securities Appeal Tribunal (SAT) on Friday dismissed the petition of Reliance Industries against the order of market regulator SEBI. The regulator imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on a violation of the discriminatory trading prohibition regulation (PIT). In the June 2022 order, SEBI found RIL guilty of violating the law as it failed to immediately explain the details of Facebook's possible investment in the Jio platform.
A bench headed by Justice PS Dinesh Kumar said, “We consider the appellars a violation of the Schedule A of these rules and retain SEBI's order.” The case is related to the confidential and non-disclose agreement between RIL and Facebook in September 2019, which they signed. After this, on March 4, 2020, a non-negotiable agreement for Facebook's investment in Jio platforms was signed.
Legal experts said, although the fine in the case was only 30 lakh rupees, the decision of the set could become an example for companies in leaking news and dealing with revelations. On March 24, 2020, the Financial Times reported that Facebook had reached close to the deal of buying 10 per cent stake in Jio. India's media also carried forward this news, which led to a 15 per cent jump in RIL shares.
RIL formally informed the stock exchanges about the Jio-Facebook deal on April 22, 2020, following a certain documents related to certain karr. RIL argued that it is not binding to confirm or denote the rumors of the market under theory 4, as the regulation applies only to select leaks.
First Published – May 2, 2025 | 10:52 PM IST
