Former Home Secretary G. K. Pillai, on Tuesday, said his resignation as MCX Stock Exchange Chairman was partly because of action initiated by the CBI against two former top officials of SEBI for alleged irregularities in grant of licence to the bourse.
Mr. Pillai, who was appointed public interest director and Chairman of MCX-SX after SEBI ordered a restructuring of its board in the wake of NSEL scam, resigned last week within hours of CBI initiating a Preliminary Enquiry against SEBI’s former Chairman C. B. Bhave and former member K. M. Abraham.
While he had cited ‘personal grounds’ for his resignation at that time, Mr. Pillai said in an interview to a TV channel on Tuesday said that “no action should be taken against individual officers” if a regulatory view is taken on the basis of facts, and it would be ‘party correct’ to say that his decision to quit was because of the CBI action.
He also termed the timing of the CBI move as ‘quite atrocious’, and said that any agency doing investigation and taking action in the financial markets had to know the implications of its action on the financial market itself.
Mr. Pillai termed the CBI action as ‘most unfortunate’ and said that Mr. Bhave was an outstanding officer of high integrity.
“I think this whole action of trying to take or trying to second guess decisions taken five years afterwards is not good for the business climate in India,” he added.
Mr. Pillai also said that his understanding of the MCX-SX case was that SEBI had taken an extremely fair and legal decision and, therefore, “to try and second guess what they should have done five years down the line by an investigating agency doesn’t help at all.’’
