A PIL alleging the full page advertisement dated 17 March 2013 by Sahara India Parivar and Subrata Roy Sahara as being against the provisions of law has been filed in Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench. IPS officer Amitabh Thakur and social activist Dr Nutan Thakur have filed this PIL.
It says that a private person and a private organization have openly denigrated and accused SEBI, which is a statutory body established to safeguard the interests of investors and to act as the Market Regulator. The Ad has also criticized Justice B N Agarwal’s conduct while both SEBI and Justice Agarwal are only performing their official duty. The matter is still sub-judice before the Supreme Court and hence these people could have presented their grievance there.
This act of criticizing SEBI through an Ad prima-facie seems to be a criminal misconduct under sections 186 and 189 IPC and provisions of Companies Act 1956.
Hence Amitabh and Nutan have prayed that a complete ban shall be imposed on all advertisements where any constitutional or statutory body is criticized. They have also asked for enquiry into the issue and necessary subsequent legal actions against Sahara India parivar and Subrata Roy.
The PIL is expected to be heard on 22 March before the Bench of Chief Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and Justice D K Arora. Petitioner’s counsel is Asok Pande.