April 10: The Supreme Court has paved the way for the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) to issue license for the second stock exchange platform in the country.
The board can now issue license after the apex court cancelled the second writ petition filed against SEBON’s move to issue such license.
A division bench of Justices Anil Kumar Sinha and Sushma Lata Mathema decided to quashed the petition filed by advocate Deepak Bikram Mishra demanding the cancellation of the new license to be distributed by the board.
Last August, the board amended the regulations to distribute new licenses. Two cases were filed at the Supreme Court saying that the regulations amended by the board were not in accordance with the rules. Advocate Deepak Bikram Mishra filed a petition in the Supreme Court on October 17 and Advocate Amrit Kharel on November 2 demanding the cancellation of the new license distribution process.
The writ filed by advocate Amrit Kharel was dismissed on December 28 last year. A full bench of SC justices Hari Krishna Karki, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Dr Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Anil Kumar Sinha and Sapna Pradhan Malla had dismissed the petition.
With the aim of making the securities market more competitive, the Board implemented the Second Amendment to the Securities Market Operation Regulations, 2064 and the Fourth Amendment to the Securities Dealers (Securities Brokers and Securities Dealers) Regulations, 2064.
After the implementation of the revised regulations, the board opened the application for distribution of new licenses on September 18. After the writ petition was filed, the board suspended the license distribution process from November 1.
The board has already received 45 applications for new broker’s license.
Based on the capital structure, the board collected applications for the distribution of three types of broker licenses. However, the board suspended the process on November 1, the last day of collecting applications for licenses of one new stock exchange and two commodity exchange ompanies following the court order.
