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Nishikant Dubey writes to LS Speaker to restrain PAC chief Venugopal

Oct 06, 2024 04:48 AM IST

Nishikant Dubey has argued that the Comptroller & Auditor General of India has not published any report on the conduct of the Sebi chief.

New Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Nishikant Dubey has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to “restrain” Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief KC Venugopal and expressed concern over the panel becoming a “surreptitious tool kit of some countries, inimical to the galloping strides of our country”, triggering a potential conflict before Parliament’s audit watchdog reviews the performance of markets regulator Sebi on October 24.

Nishikant Dubey has argued that the Comptroller & Auditor General of India has not published any report on the conduct of the Sebi chief. (PTI)
Nishikant Dubey has argued that the Comptroller & Auditor General of India has not published any report on the conduct of the Sebi chief. (PTI)

The letter, written last month, is in the context of the PAC “looking into the allegations against SEBI Chief, Mrs Madhabi Puri Buch, which would also include inquiry into the claims of conflict of interest and corrupt practices”. Dubey, however, has not been able to persuade the PAC to drop the issue.

The Lok Sabha secretariat’s bulletin on the upcoming meeting of the PAC said, “Briefing by Audit followed by Oral evidence of the representatives of Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on the subject, ‘Performance Review of Regulatory Bodies established by Act of Parliament’.” The PAC will also do a performance review of telecom regulator Trai on the same day.

A Hindenburg Research report alleged that Buch and her husband held hidden stakes in obscure offshore funds in Bermuda and Mauritius that were used by Vinod Adani. The couple dismissed the allegations as baseless, asserting their finances are transparent.

Later, the Congress party levelled a series of allegations that Buch earned rental income from an entity, which belonged to a company that was under the Sebi’s scanner in a number of cases. The Congress had also alleged that Buch earned 16.80 crore between 2017 and 2024 as income from ICICI Bank when she was a Sebi member.

This is not the first time that Dubey has written against Congress leaders heading parliamentary panels. In 2021, Dubey wrote to Speaker Om Birla asking for the removal of IT panel chief Shashi Tharoor.

To be sure, even as Tharoor was shifted to head the chemicals and fertilizers panel on September 13, 2022, Venugopal enjoys greater authority as the PAC chairman’s post always goes to the biggest opposition party.

In the letter, the BJP lawmaker cited Rule 308(1) of the Lok Sabha and claimed that “the PAC has also been unequivocally ordained to scrutinize the Appropriation Accounts of the Government of India and the Report of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India thereon, on the basis of which, the Committee has to satisfy -(a) that the moneys shown in the accounts as having been disbursed were legally available for, and applicable to, the service or purpose to which they have been applied or charged; (b) that the expenditure conforms to the authority which governs it; and (c) that every-re-appropriation has been made in accordance with the provisions made in this behalf under rules framed by competent authority.”

Dubey has argued that neither the Comptroller & Auditor General of India has published any report on the conduct of the Sebi chief nor does this aspect have any linkage to the appropriation accounts of the Government of India and claimed that it would be “unconstitutional and illegal” to investigate the allegation of conflict of interest of the Sebi chief — issues that are “non-existent”.

HT sent a number of messages to Venugopal to seek his response on the accusations and also called him but could not get a response.

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