Madhabi Buch & burden of representation: Legacy of women in power

The FIR ordered by a special anti-corruption court against ex-SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch and four others on allegations of fraud, months after the case of conflict of interest (in officiating over an investigation into the Adani Group's conduct in the stock market), has raised a broader question of women in the Indian workforce, especially those in positions of authority. 

The latest case against Madhabi Puri Buch, former Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), involves a Mumbai special court ordering the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to register a First Information Report (FIR) against her and five other officials on March 2.

This order came just days after her tenure as SEBI chief ended on February 28, 2025. The allegations stem from a complaint filed by Sapan Shrivastava, a legal reporter from Dombivali, Maharashtra, who accused Buch and the others of large-scale financial fraud, regulatory violations, and corruption related to the fraudulent listing of a company, identified as Cals Refineries Ltd, on the stock exchange in 1994. The complainant alleged that SEBI, under Buch’s oversight, permitted this listing despite the company’s failure to comply with essential regulatory norms under the SEBI Act, 1992, facilitating market manipulation and corporate fraud.

The special ACB court judge, Shashikant Eknathrao Bangar, found "prima facie evidence of regulatory lapses and collusion," deeming the allegations serious enough to warrant an investigation. The court directed the ACB to file the FIR under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act, and the SEBI Act, and requested a status report within 30 days while stating it would monitor the probe. The other officials named in the FIR include BSE Managing Director Sundararaman Ramamurthy, former BSE Chairman Pramod Agarwal, and SEBI whole-time members Ashwani Bhatia, Ananth Narayan G, and Kamlesh Chandra Varshney.

However, on March 4, 2025, the Bombay High Court intervened, staying the special court’s order for four weeks. Justice Shivkumar Dige noted that the lower court’s decision appeared "mechanical" and lacked specific attribution of roles to the accused, providing temporary relief to Buch and the other officials. This development has paused the ACB’s immediate action, leaving the case in limbo as of today, March 5, 2025.

This latest legal action follows earlier controversies during Buch’s tenure, including allegations by Hindenburg Research in August 2024 of conflicts of interest tied to offshore investments linked to the Adani Group, and claims by the Congress of financial impropriety, though those earlier accusations did not result in formal legal proceedings like this one. The current case marks the most recent and concrete legal challenge against her as of this date.

Women in power

Post-British India has been familiar with women in power beginning with India's representative at the UN, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. However, since Indira Gandhi became India's prime minister, followed by Mayawati as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and her counterpart in Tamil Nadu by way of J Jayalalithaa and that in West Bengal in the form of Mamata Banerjee, they have either not set great examples of governance or have not done anything particular for women's welfare and security. 

In the corporate sector, before Buch, there was Chanda Kochhar, accused of unduly benefiting promoters of Videocon through her employer, the ICICI Bank.

Greater question case of Madhabi Buch raises

Do these prominent personalities not end up doing a disservice to the cause of society in general and their gender in particular?

The same thing can be asked of Mayawati in a different context. She is technically a member of the Scheduled Caste community, which has allegedly been ill-treated by the so-called upper castes in the country. However, when this 'Dalit' (a popular term that means "downtrodden") was given a chance to set things right, she left behind an unenviable legacy of allegedly leading a thoroughly corrupt dispensation. 

While the late Jayalalithaa was born in a Brahmin family, she has a similar record, still remembered for her alleged ill-gotten wealth. 

Banerjee is another Brahmin, and her tenure in Bengal so far has been marred by several communal clashes and many incidents of rape of women, some of which she even tried to condone or justify!

Therefore, the issue cannot be of caste but of gender (sex).

When a supposedly underprivileged class of society is given a chance to prove their mettle, they fail to make the most of it, instead leaving behind memories that would give the already prejudiced society more sticks to figuratively beat them with!