life in financial markets: number game

In terms of number of orders disposed off, the appellate authority to the orders passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), is catching up after a very sluggish period in the first nine months of this year. In October, SAT, has passed orders in about 42 cases of appeals against Sebi orders, more than the number (40) of orders it passed in the entire nine month period from January to September.

The problem for the market is that it would not know the nature of the 42 October orders. On Sebi's website where SAT orders are posted in addition to Sebi's own orders, only four SAT orders are seen for the month of October and none till 4 November. "Whatever soft copies of orders we receive from SAT we upload it on our website," says a Sebi official. "Maybe there are delays or technical problems causing this," says a SAT office official.

This year has unusually seen the number of SAT orders subdued as compared with previous years (see table below). Therefore, the October surge holds significance. Provided, of course, all of them get uploaded on Sebi's website anytime soon.

SAT orders' history
	No. of orders passed
2007	44a
2006	279
2005	135
2004	112
2003	34
a - till October

The SAT orders are important because they tend to highlight how many Sebi's orders are upheld fully, partly or not at all, and give a rough indication of Sebi's enforcement efficiency levels. Data released by Sebi last month showed that out of 283 Sebi orders that were appealed against and on which SAT ruled in 2006, only 131 were upheld fully, 101 partly, 29 not at all and 22 were remanded back to Sebi for re-working.