Nifty Finds Support At 26,000-25,950 Levels
02 Dec 2025
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by Reliance Industries Limited and two of its officials against a Securities Appellate Tribunal's decision upholding a penalty imposed by markets regulator SEBI for not making prompt clarification to stock exchange about the Jio-Facebook deal.
The top court emphasized greater responsibility for large corporations, dismissing RIL's appeal. SEBI had fined the company Rs 30 lakh for failing to promptly disclose unpublished price-sensitive information, a decision now affirmed by the top court.
"The bigger the company, the greater the responsibility. You must meticulously comply with the regulations," a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi observed during the hearing.
SEBI imposed a penalty totalling Rs 30 lakh on RIL and two individuals, Savithri Parekh and K Sethuraman, for not making prompt clarification to the stock exchange pertaining to the Jio-Facebook deal, which was disclosed through media reports in March-April 2020.
The regulator held that the company did not issue timely confirmations or denials in response to widespread media reports speculating on Facebook's investment in Jio Platforms.
SEBI Adjudicating Officer Barnali Mukherjee had said in an order, "I find that the news pertaining JIO-Facebook deal came out on March 24 and 25, 2020, and the information to the stock exchanges about the media release titled 'Facebook to invest Rs 43,574 crore in Jio Platforms for a 9.99 per cent stake' was made on April 22, 2020, i.e. after 28 days and this calls for an appropriate penalty."
Reliance Industries, Parekh and Sethuraman did not comply with the provision of principles of fair disclosure of UPSI, which states there should be prompt dissemination of unpublished price sensitive information that gets disclosed selectively, inadvertently or otherwise to make such information generally available.
Under the LODR (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) rules, the listed entity may on its own initiative also confirm or deny any reported event or information to stock exchanges.
The top court said the SAT findings did not merit interference and moreover, no question of law was there needing adjudication.
"The moment this news came that Facebook is making such a huge investment, if it was not correct, you should have immediately denied. If everybody knows that such a huge investment is coming, the market price will rise on speculation. You are the best person to say if it is correct or not," the CJI said during the hearing.
