The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has quashed the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) order against former PTC Chairman and Managing Director Rajib Kumar Mishra from serving as a director in any listed entity.

The ruling comes after Mishra challenged the SEBI order in SAT on the grounds that he was “not in charge”.

“On a careful perusal of the allegations levelled against the appellant (Mishra) and the contentions urged on both sides, for reasons recorded here in above, we are of the view that all the allegations against the appellant in Issues Nos. 1 to 4 are baseless. Therefore, the directions contained in paragraph No: 253 of the impugned order qua the appellant are unsustainable and liable to be quashed. The appellant has suffered the order for about six months for no fault,” the SAT ruling said.

The SAT order came on Wednesday.

SEBI on June 12 order had restrained Mishra, who was CMD of PTI India and non-executive director of PTC India Financial Services (PFS), from holding any director’s post for six months. The regulator also imposed a penalty of ₹10 lakh on him for corporate governance lapses.

Following the SEBI order, Mishra ceased to be CMD of India’s largest power trading company and the non-executive director of its subsidiary, PFC. He moved SAT challenging the SEBI order, which was stayed on June 24.

No authority

Sources said that Mishra was a non-executive chairman and nominee director on the board of PFS and any non-executive board member does not have any authority and delegation of power as per Articles of Association.

Another issue was the delay in the joining of Ratnesh Kumar, who was Chief General Manager at NTPC, as Director Finance at PFS. Kumar went back to NTPC after his appointment was stalled. Another source said the appointment was to be done by the HR department and not Mishra’s responsibility.

On loan disbursal, sources pointed out that all loan accounts were handled by PFS executives, including the management. The forensic audit conducted and the data requirement for that was purely in the domain of the NBFC and the availability of data and facilitation thereof was also the responsibility of its management.