Who is SEBI's 'chronic complainant' with 578 similar grievances?

The CIC, in December 2022, disposed the petition by advising Khattar "to make proper use of her cherished right to information. (Photo by Mikhail Nilov: Pexels)

The capital markets regulator seems to be dealing with a "chronic complainant".

In a recent order under the Right to Information Act, an officer of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) noted that Geeta Khattar from April 1, 2021, has filed 578 complaints under the act seeking clarifications that are similar in nature, and related to the same matter. These complaints have either been sent directly to SEBI or been forwarded to SEBI from other authorities.

It is not clear from SEBI's orders if there is  a particular piece of information she has been continuously requesting but the orders seem to suggest that her requests are generally repetitive in nature.

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Khattar has even asked why she had been classified as a "chronic complainant" from 2022 to 2024, to which SEBI's officer had responded by directing her to the relevant section of FAQs on RTI given on the regulator's website. In her latest missive, Khattar has asked for a copy and date of the order issued by SEBI that classified her as a "chronic complainant" and the name of the officer responsible and the department in which he/she works.

RTI process

Under the RTI Act, a person can seek information from the public information officer (PIO) at a public authority like SEBI. If the person is not satisfied with the information provided, he/she can appeal to the First Appellate Authority (FAA).

Khattar has filed several requests with SEBI's PIO and filed several appeals to its FAA over these years.

The SEBI's current FAA Ruchi Chojer, in a December 9 order pertaining to Khattar's most recent query, observed that "from the information available on the RTI Portal, I note that the appellant (Khattar) has filed numerous applications under the RTI Act seeking information with respect to complaints filed by her on various government portals. The aforesaid applications are then followed by numerous appeals filed by the appellant with this forum through the online RTI Portal. I am constrained to state that the appellant has been filing complaints and then following up the same with multiple applications/ appeals on the RTI Portal."

The FAA added, "I note that most of the applications are repetitive in nature."

Blocked by SEBI

Khattar was once even blocked from SEBI's Complaint Redressal System, for a few months.

In response to an earlier appeal filed by her, SEBI's Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) said that she was blocked for reasons given in the answers to questions 31 and 32 of the FAQs for SCORES, the regulator's online grievance redressal platform.

Question 31 is on whether a person can make numerous complaints in SCORES on a single matter. To this, the FAQs say, "If complainants are not satisfied with the disposal of their complaint on SCORES, then they can approach Online Dispute Resolution mechanism, consumer courts or other appropriate civil remedies as deemed fit. However, if complainant keeps lodging the same/similar complaint again and again without any fresh facts, then SEBI may eventually classify the complainant as a chronic complainant."

Answer to Question 32 defines a chronic complainant as follows:

A chronic complainant is a person/ entity who keeps repeatedly lodging the same/similar complaint despite the complaint being suitably handled, redressed/ escalated thereby unnecessarily loading the system and wasting resources. For example, such complainants do not

*Do not provide new facts and keep complaining on the same/ similar issues
*Substantiate their allegations with documentary proofs
*Avail Online Dispute Resolution mechanism
*Accept SEBI’s lack of jurisdiction in contractual disputes, sub -judice matter etc.

According to the FAQs, if a person is once classified thus, his/her email ID will be blocked by SEBI and any email ID from the same person but from a different email ID will also not be processed and will be blocked by SEBI. SCORES’ credential of such chronic complainant including PAN and e-mail shall also be blocked by SEBI. The chronic complainant will not be able to login into SCORES, file any fresh complaint or check the status of previously filed complaint.

To be unblocked, an entity can request for a changing of the chronic complainant status along with an undertaking to SEBI that the chronic complaint will not be taken up further. Accordingly, chronic complainant status would be reviewed and e-mail ID/ SCORES credentials will be unblocked.

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'Clogging the system'

Khattar had even approached the Central Information Commission (CIC), where she accused the regulator's officials of "large-scale white collar crime". The CIC, in December 2022, disposed of the petition advising Khattar "to make proper use of her cherished right to information".

In the order, the CIC observed that Khattar "neither appears during the hearings before the Commission nor receives the postal notices of the Commission".

It added, "Needless to say, such multiplicity of frivolous RTI applications and appeals arising thereof are clogging the system of the Commission as well as of the public authorities."