PAC postpones meeting as SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch seeks exemption

PAC postpones meeting as SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch seeks exemption

The Public Accounts Committee adjourned a key meeting on SEBI's performance review on October 24 after SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch informed the PAC chairman at 9:30 am of her inability to attend due to personal exigencies.

The PAC is headed by K C Venugopal of the Congress. "Considering a woman's request we thought that it is better to postpone today's meeting for another day," he said.

After PAC meeting got postponed, its member and BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad accused chairman K C Venugopal of taking suo motu decisions.

"We had serious reservations about the procedure adopted in the PAC meeting. Today's conduct of the chairperson of the PAC, the way he didn't allow us to speak and walked away is unparliamentary and politically motivated," Prasad said.

PAC head and Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said: "In the first meeting of the committee itself we decided to have a suo moto subject for review of our regulatory bodies. That is why we called SEBI, today morning for a review of SEBI. The committee branch sends the notice to the concerned people. First of all, they sought an exemption, SEBI chairperson sought an exemption from appearing before the committee which we denied. After that, she confirmed she and her team would be present on this committee... Today morning, she (SEBI chairperson, Madhabi Puri Buch) informed me that she is not in a position to travel to Delhi. Considering a woman's request we thought that it is better to postpone today's meeting for another day."

The meeting’s agenda includes oral evidence of representatives of the finance ministry and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as part of the committee’s decision to go for the “performance review of regulatory bodies established by Act of Parliament”.

While the committee’s decision to include the performance review of regulatory bodies established by legislation in its agenda invited no protest, Venugopal’s move to call Buch raised hackles of the ruling party members as she has been at the centre of a political row ignited by US firm Hindenburg’s allegations against her.

The short-seller company’s accusation of conflict of interest against Buch was seized by the Congress to seek her ouster and to attack the government, rendering political dimensions to the panel’s missive to her to appear before it.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, a member of the panel, wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against Venugopal, accusing the senior Congress leader of raking up non-existent issues to defame the central government and destabilise the country’s financial structure and economy.

Parliamentarians from the BJP and its allies are in a majority in the committee, and they are likely to vehemently oppose any move by opposition members to raise issues that they believe are outside the panel’s remit, reported PTI on October 23.

Dubey has said the sole function of the Public Accounts Committee is confined to scrutinising the appropriation accounts of the Government of India and reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

With inputs from PTI