The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has appointed former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Taruvai Subayya Krishnamurthy as the observer for the e-voting process of unit holders of six shut schemes of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund.
A SEBI statement said the appointment was made on December 18, 2020, for the e-voting process scheduled from December 26 to 29.
The capital market regulator also constituted a technical assistance team to assist the observer comprising BN Sahoo, Chief General Manager, SEBI; Nayana Ovalekar, Chief Operating Officer of Central Depository Services Limited; K. Sriram, Practising Company Secretary and Scrutiniser; M. Krishna and Ch. E. Sai Prasad, Assistant Directors of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad.
Franklin Templeton has come up with a statement on the appointment of the observer and the assisting team along with contact details of the observer.
Chennai Financial Markets and Accountability (CFMA), an investor protection body, said it would move an urgent interim application in the Supreme Court on Monday, seeking to nullify the entire e-voting process initiated by Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund (FTMF) on its six shut debt funds.
The investor body alleged that the announcement by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) of appointing former Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy as an observer was an eyewash as it came after the e-voting began on Saturday. "It is against the letter and spirit of the order passed by the Supreme Court on December 9. It is akin to appointing a presiding officer after the election," it added.
CFMA had earlier moved an urgent application in the top court against SEBI over not appointing an observer to oversee the e-voting by Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund (FTMF) in terms of the court's December 9 order.
In its December 9 order, the apex court directed the markets regulator to appoint an observer to oversee the entire e-voting process by Franklin Templeton to be held between December 26 and 29.