MUMBAI: The Securities Appellate Tribunal has allowed the Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy, the so-called investor education school being run by the controversial finfluencer Avadhut Sathe who was banned by the regulator Sebi earlier this month, to withdraw funds for basic expenses to run the academy.
The academy, Avadhut and his wife Gauri, have challenged the interim Sebi ex-parte order issued on December 4, at the tribunal earlier this week. After hearing both sides briefly here Friday, the SAT allowed for an interim arrangement to meet the expenses of the academy. “In view of intervening vacations, we direct that appellant may be permitted to draw Rs 2.25 crore for this month," SAT said in its preliminary order Friday.
It also said the petitioners’ bank accounts to that extent will be defreezed, said SAT and fixed January 9 as the next hearing.The academy has sought for permission to withdraw Rs 5.25 crore as monthly expenses but Sebi side pointed that out that Rs 2 crore is for advertisement and Rs 1 crore for seminars expenses, which may not be considered necessary.
Sebi in the interim order had accused the academy of running unregistered investment advisory and research analyst services while projecting itself as a stock market education platform. Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, appearing for the petitioners argued that the Sebi order is harsh and a death knell for his enterprise which he built since 2008 on 12.5-acre land at Karjat neare Mumbai, with his earnings invested there.
“This is an appeal where the age-old proposition of law that you cannot pass a sentence without a trial has been completely destroyed and obliterated by passing an ex-parte order which also directed his client to deposit Rs 546 crore in 15 days after freezing the bank account immediately,” Dwarkadas said.
The advocate further said, “suddenly out of the blue comes this order which puts an economic death to my entire enterprise on prima facie finding of guilt. No hearing, no opportunity”. He said, the allegation on which Sebi has passed the order is from 12 students out of 3.5 lakh students.
Appearing for SebiI, senior advocate Chetan Kapadia countered that the action was not sudden but based on evidence and observations.“The petitioners were issued an advisory more than one year ago and there was a search and seizure order. We went to their premises, their houses in August 2025. Everything has been seized.
On the basis of the material seized from the institute the order has been passed,” Kapadia said. Elaborating about the activities of the academy he said, “where teachers tell students what to buy and what to sell. How to buy and how to sell”. Emphasising that buy and sell calls are provided in training which is against Sebi laws as the entity is not registered either as investment advisor or research analyst.
In its appeal, the academy sought to overturn Sebi’s December 4 order that barred the academy and its promoters from accessing the securities markets, restrained them from collecting course fees or conducting live trading sessions, and also directed the impounding of Rs 601 crore as alleged unlawful gains.
The academy argued that Sebi’s conclusions are based on incorrect assessment of data, particularly student trading results used to allege misleading testimonials. It has also challenged Sebi's finding that the company suffered losses of nearly Rs 1.89 crore during FY25 and FY26, stating that audited figures show profits of around Rs 1.39 crore. Another ground of appeal relates to Sebi’s reliance on WhatsApp chats between Sathe and certain students.
The appeal maintains that these chats are limited to mentorship batches, are not part of the advertised course structure, and function only as community interactions rather than advisory services. Sebi, however, in its 125-page order passed by whole-time member Kamlesh Chandra Varshney, relied on video recordings, complaints and search-and-seizure operations conducted in August to conclude that stock-specific recommendations, targets, stop-losses and options strategies were routinely shared during live sessions.