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2017 (2) TMI 414 - HC - Indian LawsProfessional misconduct - default under Chartered Accountants Act - non explanations of three certificates issued to the company on the strength of which the company started trading its shares on the two stock exchanges - Held that:- SEBI has noted that the respondent was confronted with the bank statement of account issued by the banker of the company. Indeed respondent had no answer. Interestingly the order passed by SEBI brings out that in his stand before SEBI the respondent had inter-alia taken an alternative defence of relying on return of allotment in Form 2 submitted by the company to the Registrar of Companies. The said form was signed by the Company Secretary of the Company on December 01, 1999. Rightly it has been held by SEBI that the respondent could not have acted on the strength of the form because the dates on which he issued the certificates preceded the date of Form No.2. Proceeding to take cognizance of a report submitted by SEBI the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants constituted a Disciplinary Committee, forming a prima-facie opinion that the respondent was guilty of professional misconduct. Proceedings were initiated by the Disciplinary Committee. The respondent was served. His reply was taken on record. He was heard on various dates. The report of the Committee dated November 02, 2009 is a reflection of the order passed by SEBI. In the interregnum CBI had stepped in. Record of the company had been seized by CBI. No assistance from the respondent who has chosen not to appear today and would therefore highlight that in the certificate dated November 13, 1999 the respondent has consciously omitted to add the column of the date when the cheques were encashed for the reason he knew that no cheque had been encashed by the date he gave the certificate. We would also highlight that before the Disciplinary Committee that the respondent relied upon Form 2 which had been submitted by the Company to the Registrar of Companies, and suffice it to record that said form could not form the basis on which the respondent issued the certificates because the date of issue of said form under signatures of the Company Secretary of the Company, is much after the date when the three certificates were issued by the respondent. Accepting the report of the Disciplinary Committee, the Council at its meeting recommended penalty of removal of the name of the respondent from the Register of Members of the Institute for a period of five years.
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