The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has directed the to disclose the identities and basic details of complainants in a case involving Asmita Patel Global School of Trading Pvt Ltd, holding that such information is necessary for the appellants to effectively defend themselves.
A bench comprising Justice PS Dinesh Kumar, Presiding Officer, and technical members Meera Swarup and Dheeraj Bhatnagar partly allowed an appeal filed by the trading education firm and its director, Asmita Patel. The appeal challenged SEBI’s refusal to share certain documents and to permit cross-examination in connection with an ex parte interim order-cum-show cause notice issued in February 2025 .
SEBI’s interim order had accused the firm of providing unregistered investment advisory and research analyst services through courses and online platforms such as Telegram and Zoom, and had directed disgorgement of ₹1.04 crore, representing fees allegedly collected for such activities.
The tribunal held that SEBI’s decision to mask the names and contact details of the 42 complainants was “not tenable”. SAT also directed SEBI to share correspondence exchanged with the complainants, including emails and discussions, subject to redaction of confidential or personal information.
However, it rejected requests for trading ledgers of all complainants, internal file notings and broadly worded demands for “any other” documents in SEBI’s possession, noting that such material was either not relied upon or not required to be disclosed at this stage.
On the plea for cross-examination of complainants and SEBI officials, the tribunal ruled that the request was premature, as the appellants had not yet filed their reply to the show-cause notice. It granted liberty to renew the request at an appropriate stage before SEBI.