Questions the PAC wishes to put to SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch

While she defended her actions by maintaining that she had transferred her shares to her husband, government rules prohibit parents, spouses, children and even in-laws from owning shares, which could lead to a conflict of interest for full-time SEBI members. SEBI’s own rules on brokers, influencers and intermediaries are more stringent and restrictive than those that Buch allowed itself.

The September 2 Lok Sabha bulletin said that the PAC had selected 160 topics for discussion during its term. The topics were determined at the first meeting of the Polish Accreditation Committee, which took place on August 29. The 22-member committee includes 12 members from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and eight opposition parliamentarians, including four from the Congress.

The panel selected five topics suo motu an inquiry, including “a review of the performance of regulatory bodies established by Act of Parliament” and “the collection and regulation of charges, tariffs, user charges etc. from public infrastructure and other public utilities”. Under the first topic, several regulatory bodies can be reviewed, including bodies such as SEBI and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The second topic, “collection and regulation of fees, tariffs, user charges, etc. from public infrastructure and other public utilities”, will focus on highways, railway stations and airports. The Congress alleged that the government, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was favoring the Adani Group in managing airports across India.

There are currently seven airports – Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai; Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport; Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow; Mangaluru International Airport; Jaipur International Airport; Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Guwahati; and Thiruvananthapuram International Airport – are managed by the Adani Group. The group’s airport operations are managed by Adani Airport Holdings Ltd, which handles 23 percent of India’s total passenger traffic.