PAC meet: TMC's Saugata Roy demands summoning of SEBI chief Buch, BJP objects

New Delhi: After deciding to take up "performance review of regulatory bodies", senior Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy on Tuesday demanded summoning embattled SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch before the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to question her on the functioning of the regulator body and allegations of conflict of interest against her.

Roy's demand at a meeting of the PAC chaired by senior Congress MP K C Venugopal met with objections from BJP MP Nishikant Dubey who said that the CAG cannot audit Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and hence the panel cannot summon her, sources said.

At the meeting convened to review the performance audit of Jal Jeevan Mission, Dubey said that SEBI cannot be audited without the mandate of the union government and that the PAC cannot summon officials of regulators without evidence of "flaws" in finances provided by the government, revealed sources.

Sources further said that Dubey argued PAC has defined rules and if a suo motu cognisance has to be taken, it has to be substantiated with evidence.

US short-seller Hindenburg Research had earlier accused Buch of conflict of interest claiming that she had a stake in offshore firms which dealt with Ambani Group companies even after she became a SEBI member and later its chairperson.

Congress too targeted Buch over the report and later levelled allegations of conflict of interest. On Tuesday, Congress alleged that Madhabi Puri Buch had 99 per cent stake in a firm that provided consultancy services to  Mahindra and Mahindra Group and her husband received Rs 4.78 crore as income from the conglomerate while it was under the scanner of the regulatory body.

Earlier, Congress levelled fresh allegations of conflict of interest against Buch, claiming that she continued to hold an office of profit at the ICICI Bank even after taking over as a member of the regulatory body seven years ago. Buch, however, had denied all allegations against her.

On August 29, at the first meeting of the reconstituted PAC, it was decided to take up performance review of regulatory bodies and the selection of the subject was read as the multi-party panel's intent to take up the allegations against the SEBI chief.

The PAC is one of the prominent panels in Parliament and its main job is to ascertain that money granted by Parliament has been spent by the government “within the scope of the demand”.