Pinaki Chandra Ghose JUDGMENT
S.S. Nijjar, J.
1. This writ petition has been filed by one Mr. Arun Kumar Agrawal under Article 32 of the Constitution of India; seeks the issuance of a writ of quo warranto or any other direction against Mr. U.K. Sinha, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (hereinafter referred to as 'SEBI') and his consequential removal from the post of Chairman.
2. Stated concisely, the Petitioner challenges the appointment of Respondent No. 4 on the following grounds:
(a) Mr. Sinha failed to fulfill one of the eligibility condition as laid down in Sub-section (5) of Section 4 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (hereinafter referred to as 'SEBI Act'), as well as the qualification contained in Government communication, which required that the Chairman shall be a person of high integrity.
(b) The appointment of Respondent No. 4 is the result of manipulation, misrepresentation and suppression of vital material before the Search-cum-Selection Committee and the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet (hereinafter referred to as 'ACC').
(c) The appointment of Respondent No. 4, a Chairman of SEBI, is mala fide.
3. Mr. Prashant Bhushan, learned Counsel appearing for the Petitioner, has made detailed submissions with regard to the manipulations and the maneuvers indulged in by the Petitioner with the active connivance of some other persons to successfully mislead the Search Committee as well as the ACC. He has highlighted that the Petitioner does not fulfill the requirements of Section 4(5) of SEBI Act which provides as under:
(5) The Chairman and the other members referred to in Clauses (a) and (d) of Sub-section (1) shall be persons of ability, integrity and standing who have shown capacity in dealing with problems relating to securities marker or have special knowledge or experience of law, finance, economics, accountancy, administration or in any other discipline which, in the opinion of the Central Government, shall be useful to the Board.
4. Giving the factual background, he referred to the communication dated 10th September, 2010 of the Department of Economic Affairs inviting the application for the post of Chairman SEBI. In paragraph 3 of the aforesaid communication which provided that "keeping in view the role and importance of SEBI as a regulator, it is desirable that person with high integrity, eminence and reputation preferably with more than 25 years of professional experience and in the age group of 50 to 60 years may apply". Learned Counsel submits that Mr. Sinha lacks integrity which is well illustrated by a reference