Things came to a head after March 12, 2007, when Ravindran Ramaswamy, the Singapore consultant sent a legal notice to SHCIL’s CMD, Jayaraman Iyer, and wanted the legal notice shared with the finance minister, the CBI, the Economic Offences wing, Sebi chairman, RBI governor and all chairmen of all stakeholders of SHCIL. Obviously, this was not done. Our letter to

S Ramathan, chairman SLL and its compliance officer seeking a response to the legal notice got no reply. In the past SHCIL has refused to provide even simple details like its shareholding pattern. The regulator’s inaction in the SHCIL episode has also raised a lot of eyebrows at the highest levels in Delhi.

SHCIL is another example where a company owned by a set of government institutions, seems to escape all public scrutiny, as it is not subject to disclosure and governance norms of private listed companies, nor the oversight of the Central Vigilance Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor General. This is a policy issue that the government will have to pay serious attention.