The Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) 20 June ruling that fined Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Rs. 30 lakh for failing to disclose information was suspended on Tuesday by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).

RIL and its two compliance officials, K. Sethuraman and Savithri Parekh, were each fined jointly by the markets regulator in June for allegedly violating the Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) rules.

RIL had argued for a stay of the ruling in its appearance before SAT.

A court headed by Justice Tarun Agarwala declared, “We delay the effect and operation of Sebi’s 20 June order and list it for ultimate determination on 12 December.”

Before Facebook purchased a 9.99% stake in RIL subsidiary Jio Platforms in April 2020 for Rs43,574 crore, the complaint concerns the fair disclosure of unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI).

The regulator deemed a news article from the Financial Times, London, dated 24 March 2020, revealing the anticipated investment by the major international internet corporation, to be of substantial concern. RIL’s stock increased by 15% as a result, thus making UPSI.

According to Sebi, Parekh and Sethuraman should have explained their comments regarding the news item’s exchanges. It was noted that RIL, Parekh, and Sethuraman did not adhere to the provisions of the UPSI’s principles of fair disclosure, which state that unpublished price-sensitive information that is selectively, unintentionally, or otherwise disclosed should be promptly disseminated in order to make it generally available. Additionally, it was claimed that they failed to make the necessary clarifications in accordance with LODR rules.

RIL claimed that because the stock markets did not request an explanation, it was not necessary to do so. According to Sebi, the corporation cannot avoid its responsibility to independently verify a news article that has appeared in the newspaper.

Justice Agarwala asked Sebi to file reply in the matter. “How feasible is it for any listed company to reply to every sort of information that is disseminated from across the globe,” he asked the Sebi counsel.