NEW DELHI: SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Tuesday appeared before the parliamentary standing committee on finance over regulatory issues concerning the capital market.
According to sources, Buch is also expected to be questioned about the recent National Stock Exchange (NSE) scam.
The panel chaired by former minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha has called Buch to deliberate upon regulatory issues related to initial public offerings, international financial services centres and alternate investment fund, according to a notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Memebers in the committee said they would like to know about the investigation being done by the SEBI in the NSE scam in which several of its top officials including former chief executive officers Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narain are being investigated.
Sinha had said that Buch has been called by the parliamentary panel to deliberate upon the orderly functioning of the market in the recent volatility and turbulent flow of cash.
This is the second meeting of SEBI officials with the parliamentary panel in the last week, after March 30.
Meanwhile, the income tax department, ED and CBI are investigating the case related to irregularities in co-location facility provided by NSE, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said on Tuesday.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the minister said market regulator Sebi, after investigation into the matter involving NSE and other entities, has passed requisite orders.
"CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department are investigating the case related to irregularities in respect of Co-location facility provided by NSE and their investigations are still going on," he said.
To a question on whether further measures are to be adopted to strengthen the stock exchanges in the light of the NSE case, the minister said review of governance norms in Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) is a continuous process and the same is carried out regularly as per the changing dynamics of the securities market.
"Some of key measures undertaken by SEBI are strengthening of governance norms across MIIs and making code of conduct applicable to the Stock Exchanges, Clearing Corporations and Depositories for prevention of fraud or market abuse," he said.
The CBI had last month arrested NSE's former MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna.
She has been remanded to judicial custody till April 11.
The arrest pertaining to the co-location case follows an FIR which was registered in May 2018, amid fresh revelations about irregularities at the country's largest stock exchange.
In February this year, Sebi imposed a monetary penalty on NSE as well as Ramakrishna and Ravi Narain, and two other officials for lapses in recruitment at the senior level.
Narain was at the helm of affairs at NSE from April 1994 till March 2013, while Ramkrishna was MD and CEO of the stock exchange from April 2013 to December 2016.
Sebi has observed that NSE and its top executives violated norms in appointing Anand Subramanian as Group Operating Officer (GOO) and advisor to the MD.