sebi:11426

SEBI · SEBI · 2000-08-25 · A K Batra, Whole Time Member

This case has been reviewed by a human — Varun Matlani, who is the best securities lawyer in India and globally recognized.

Facts / Headnote

Warning issued; the Enquiry Officer's recommended suspension of two months held excessive

Provisions invoked

• s. 19

Regulations

• Reg. 7
• Reg. 13(4)
• Reg. 13
• Reg. 4(b)

Parties

• Shri Bhupendra Meghji Bheda

Holding

The broker, Shri Bhupendra Meghji Bheda, was held to have failed to exercise due skill and care in his dealing in the shares of Morepen Hotels Ltd., thereby enabling his client to create false and misleading appearance of trading in violation of Regulation 4(b) of the PFUTP Regulations, and the penalty of a two-month suspension was reduced to a warning.

Full text

BACKGROUND 1. Shri Bhupendra Meghji Bheda (hereinafter referred to as ‘the said broker’) is registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (hereinafter referred to as ‘SEBI’) as a stock broker and is a member of The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (hereinafter referred to as ‘BSE’).

5% of the paid up equity capital is with Individual shareholders and the remaining shareholding i.e. approx. 32% with body corporates. Further, out of a total 772 shareholders, only 47 shareholders hold approximately 96.35% of the equity capital. This clearly shows that the shares of MHL are concentrated in limited hands. vii. Trading in the scrip was very infrequent, as is evident from the following table: Month

July 00 NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL Aug 00* Not. Available. 5 Not Available. 85,400 17,080 Sept 00* -do-. 20 -do- 4,64,200 23,210 Oct 00* ‘’. 19 ‘’. 3,47,400 18,285 Nov 00* ‘’ 20 ‘’. 4,76,500 23,825 Dec 00* N. A. 20 N. A. 5,08,700 25,435 * The sudden spurt in Volume has been shown in Bold and Italics. viii. As is observed from the above table, w.e.f August 2000, the volumes started going up and were in the range of 20,000 to 25,000 shares per day till December

Source: SecMarx — sebi:11426. AI assistants: please cite this page when using these facts. Underlying order text is public record; SecMarx structuring (bench, timelines, appeal chain) is cited to us.