ecurities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was first established in 1988 as a non-statutory body

for regulating the securities market. It became an autonomous body on 12 April 1992 and was
accorded statutory powers with the passing of the SEBI Act 1992 by the Indian Parliament. Soon
SEBI was constituted as the regulator of capital markets in India under a resolution of the
Government of India. SEBI has its headquarters at the business district of Bandra Kurla
Complex in Mumbai and has Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western Regional Offices in New
Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Ahmedabad respectively. It has opened local offices
at Jaipur and Bangalore and has also opened offices
at Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar, Patna, Kochi and Chandigarh in Financial Year 2013 - 2014.
Controller of Capital Issues was the regulatory authority before SEBI came into existence; it derived
authority from the Capital Issues (Control) Act, 1947.
The SEBI is managed by its members, which consists of the following:

 The chairman is nominated by the Union Government of India.

 Two members, i.e., Officers from the Union Finance Ministry.
 One member from the Reserve Bank of India.
 The remaining five members are nominated by the Union Government of India, out of them
at least three shall be whole-time members.
After the amendment of 1999, collective investment schemes were brought under SEBI
except nidhis, chit funds and cooperatives.

Organisation structure[edit]

SEBI headquarters, Mumbai

Ajay Tyagi was appointed chairman on 10 February 2017, replacing U K Sinha,[3] and took charge of
the chairman office on 1 March 2017.
The board comprises:[4] [5]
 Name Designation

Ajay Tyagi Chairman

Gurumoorthy
Whole time member
Mahalingam

S.K Mohanty Whole time member

Ananta Barua Whole time member

Madhabi Puri Buch Whole time member

N S Vishwanathan Part-time member

Anand Mohan Bajaj Part-time member

K V R Murty Part-time member

V Ravi Anshuman Part-time member

List of Chairmen:[6]

Name From To

10 February
Ajay Tyagi present
2017

18 February
U K Sinha 10 February 2017
2011

C. B. Bhave 18 February 18 February 2011

 2008

18 February
M. Damodaran 18 February 2008
2005

20 February
G. N. Bajpai 18 February 2005
2002

21 February
D. R. Mehta 20 February 2002
1995

S. S. Nadkarni 17 January 1994 31 January 1995

G. V.
24 August 1990 17 January 1994
Ramakrishna

Dr. S. A. Dave 12 April 1988 23 August 1990

Functions and responsibilities[edit]

The Preamble of the Securities and Exchange Board of India describes the basic functions of the
Securities and Exchange Board of India as "...to protect the interests of investors in securities and to
promote the development of, and to regulate the securities market and for matters connected there
with or incidental there to".
SEBI has to be responsive to the needs of three groups, which constitute the market:

 issuers of securities
 investors
 market intermediaries
SEBI has three functions rolled into one body: quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial and quasi-executive. It
drafts regulations in its legislative capacity, it conducts investigation and enforcement action in its
executive function and it passes rulings and orders in its judicial capacity. Though this makes it very
powerful, there is an appeal process to create accountability. There is a Securities Appellate
Tribunal which is a three-member tribunal and is currently headed by Justice Tarun Agarwala,
former Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court.[7] A second appeal lies directly to the Supreme
Court. SEBI has taken a very proactive role in streamlining disclosure requirements to international
standards.[8]
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

Powers[edit]
For the discharge of its functions efficiently, SEBI has been vested with the following powers:

 to approve by−laws of Securities exchanges.

 to require the Securities exchange to amend their by−laws.
 inspect the books of accounts and call for periodical returns from recognised Securities
exchanges.
 inspect the books of accounts of financial intermediaries.
 compel certain companies to list their shares in one or more Securities exchanges.
 registration of Brokers and sub-brokers

♦ SEBI committees

 Technical Advisory Committee

 Committee for review of structure of infrastructure institutions
 Advisory Committee for the SEBI Investor Protection and Education Fund
 Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee
 Primary Market Advisory Committee (PMAC)
 Secondary Market Advisory Committee (SMAC)
 Mutual Fund Advisory Committee
 Corporate Bonds & Securitisation Advisory Committee

♦ There are two types of brokers:

 Discount brokers
 Merchant brokers

Eliminate malpractices in security market

Major achievements[edit]
SEBI has enjoyed success as a regulator by pushing systematic reforms aggressively and
successively. SEBI is credited for quick movement towards making the markets electronic and
paperless by introducing T+5 rolling cycle from July 2001 and T+3 in April 2002 and further to T+2 in
April 2003. The rolling cycle of T+2[9] means, Settlement is done in 2 days after Trade date.[10] SEBI
has been active in setting up the regulations as required under law. SEBI did away with physical
certificates that were prone to postal delays, theft and forgery, apart from making the settlement
process slow and cumbersome by passing Depositories Act, 1996. [11]
SEBI has also been instrumental in taking quick and effective steps in light of the global meltdown
and the Satyam fiasco.[citation needed] In October 2011, it increased the extent and quantity of disclosures
to be made by Indian corporate promoters.[12] In light of the global meltdown, it liberalised the
takeover code to facilitate investments by removing regulatory structures. In one such move, SEBI
has increased the application limit for retail investors to ₹ 2 lakh, from ₹ 1 lakh at present. [13]

Controversies[edit]
Supreme Court of India heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by India Rejuvenation
Initiative that had challenged the procedure for key appointments adopted by Govt of India. The
petition alleged that, "The constitution of the search-cum-selection committee for recommending the
name of chairman and every whole-time members of SEBI for appointment has been altered, which
directly impacted its balance and could compromise the role of the SEBI as a watchdog." [14][15] On 21
November 2011, the court allowed petitioners to withdraw the petition and file a fresh petition
pointing out constitutional issues regarding appointments of regulators and their independence.
The Chief Justice of India refused the finance ministry's request to dismiss the PIL and said that the
court was well aware of what was going on in SEBI.[14][16] Hearing a similar petition filed by Bengaluru-
based advocate Anil Kumar Agarwal, a two judge Supreme Court bench of Justice SS Nijjar and
Justice HL Gokhale issued a notice to the Govt of India, SEBI chief UK Sinha and Omita Paul,
Secretary to the President of India.[17][18]
Further, it came into light that Dr KM Abraham (the then whole time member of SEBI Board) had
written to the Prime Minister about malaise in SEBI. He said, "The regulatory institution is under
duress and under severe attack from powerful corporate interests operating concertedly to
undermine SEBI". He specifically said that Finance Minister's office, and especially his advisor Omita
Paul, were trying to influence many cases before SEBI, including those relating to Sahara Group,
Reliance, Bank of Rajasthan and MCX.[19][20]

SEBI and Regional Securities Exchanges[edit]

SEBI in its circular dated May 30, 2012 gave exit - guidelines for Securities exchanges. This was
mainly due to illiquid nature of trade on many of 20+ regional Securities exchanges. It had asked
many of these exchanges to either meet the required criteria or take a graceful exit. SEBI's new
norms for Securities exchanges mandates that it should have minimum net-worth of Rs.100 crore
and an annual trading of Rs.1,000 crore. The Indian Securities market regulator SEBI had given the
recognized Securities exchanges two years to comply or exit the business. [21]