SEBI Asks Court To Remove It From Respondents In Anti-Tobacco Petition
Anti-tobacco PIL: SEBI seeks removal from list of respondents.
The market regulator on Friday asked the Bombay High Court to remove it from the list of respondents in a public interest litigation filed against government-owned insurance companies’ investments in makers of tobacco products.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India filed an affidavit in the court arguing that the petition neither seeks any relief from the regulator, nor does it make any allegations against it. The matter will be heard next six weeks from today.
Petitioners, including Tata Trusts managing trustee R Venkataramanan and doctors of the Tata Memorial Hospital, moved the court on April 14 against investments in government-run companies like the Life Insurance Corporation of India in cigarette makers like ITC Ltd. They said that such investments are against the spirit of the Frame Work Convention on Tobacco Control 2013, to which India is a signatory, and also the government’s National Tobacco Control Programme. The court had directed them to file an amended affidavit within a week, making SEBI and the ministries of finance, industry and commerce and agriculture parties to the case .
The petitioners are seeking directions to make state-owned insurers sell their stake in tobacco companies, and a framework from the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority and the government against any such investments in the future.