SEBI shuts down proceedings against RIL in wrong financial declaration case

Capital markets regulator SEBI has closed adjudication proceedings without imposing any penalty on Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in a more than 13-year-old case of alleged wrongful financial declaration. SEBI has given two grounds for not imposing penalty against RIL. It said the amendment to the relevant law making mis-disclosure of information punishable by a listed company came into force with effect from March 2019. Along with this, the regulator also mentioned its appeal pending in the Supreme Court against the order of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).
According to SEBI, despite the presence of share warrants in the quarterly financial statements RIL submitted to the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for six consecutive quarters from June 2007 to September 2008, the basic earnings per share (EPS) and deducted earnings per share are Similar figures were included. RIL had issued 12 crore warrants to its promoters on 12 April 2007, which were convertible within 18 months.
The right to apply for an equal number of equity shares was granted to its holders with an exercise price of Rs 1,402 per warrant on behalf of the company. On 03 October 2008, the Board of Directors of the company allotted 12 crore equity shares of denominations of Rs 10 to the holders on exercise of warrant.