Kaushik Laik, Managing Associate at Luthra & Luthra, has authored a commentary on the SEBI (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices relating to Securities Market) Regulations, 2003 (Regulations). The book, titled ‘Unfair Trade Practices in Securities Market’, runs into a 1,000 pages and has been published by Taxmann with the Foreword written by Professor NR Madhava Menon.
The book is a provision-by-provision commentary on the Regulations supported by decisions of the Supreme Court, various High Courts, the SAT and SEBI. It traces the history of the 2003 Regulations and the erstwhile 1995 regulations with emphasis on the legal and judicial developments that have happened over the years. One of the significant features of the book is that it also provides an insight into the US jurisprudence and its influence on Indian law. While the book concentrates on the provisions of the Regulations and illustrates how SEBI has endeavoured to regulate unfair trade practices, it also seeks to highlight how imperative it is for SEBI to ensure that, in its quest to prevent market manipulation, it doesn’t curb the orderly growth of the securities market.
Kaushik, who is a graduate of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences has been part of the Capital Markets team at Luthra & Luthra since 2007.
Speaking to Bar & Bench Kaushik said,
“I started working on this book about 3 years back. But had it not been for the firm, I would not have been able to work on this book. The kind of exposure you get in this firm and the practice that we do here helped a lot. I used to consult my Partners and my colleagues and their inputs have been very helpful.”
Regarding the challenges he faced and the balance he had to strike with his work in the firm, Kaushik said,
“The challenge while writing this book was the numerous judicial and quasi-judicial decisions which I had to sit through and analyse. Over the years, many orders have been passed by the SAT, and by various High Courts and the Supreme Court. Over and above that, since I wanted to discuss the influence of US securities laws jurisprudence, researching on US case laws was also relatively tough.
I am very grateful to the firm for its support. I managed to write the book without compromising whatsoever on my professional work. I used to do the research for the book after office hours. So, I used to be awake the whole night most times during the last 2 to 3 years.”
Kaushik also said that this book might be the first one as far as an exhaustive commentary on the Regulations is concerned though there are other commentaries on the SEBI Act and Takeover Code. He also expressed hope that the book will prove useful for law firms, corporate houses and academicians.
Image taken from here.