SEBI Chairperson Ignores Parliament’s PAC Summons

• SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, summoned by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for a review of financial regulators, skipped a meeting due to personal reasons.
• PAC Chairman K.C. Venugopal adjourned the meeting after Buch’s letter, received less than two hours before the meeting, stated her inability to appear.
• BJP MPs protested, arguing it was beyond the PAC’s mandate to summon the SEBI chief and accused Venugopal of unilaterally doing so.
• Buch later sought an exemption from deposing before the committee, claiming recent allegations against her and SEBI were sub judice.
• Venugopal denied her claim, stating the agenda was a “performance review.”
• Opposition members continued to sit in the meeting hall after adjournment, claiming the chairperson’s conduct was unparliamentary.
• The PAC reconvened to discuss the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), but the choice of subject continued to be debated.