A meeting of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was postponed on Thursday following a commotion when Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch failed to appear. Madhabi Buch had been scheduled to attend the meeting in New Delhi, but informed the PAC chair, K C Venugopal of the Congress, on Thursday morning that she was unable to travel to the capital.
Venugopal explained that the PAC had decided in an earlier meeting to review regulatory bodies, including SEBI. Buch initially requested an exemption from attending but was denied. She later confirmed she would attend, only to inform Venugopal on the morning of the meeting that she could not make the trip. Considering her request, the meeting was postponed.
The postponement led to criticism from BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, who objected to Venugopal discussing PAC proceedings with the media. He accused the PAC chair of “unparliamentary conduct” for not allowing members to speak and for choosing a subject for review without consulting the committee. Prasad expressed concern that the PAC, which traditionally reviews reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), was taking up a subject without input from the CAG. He announced plans to file a complaint with the Lok Sabha speaker over the matter.
Earlier in September, Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch denied allegations made against them, calling them “false, incorrect, malicious, and motivated.” They asserted that their income tax returns had been obtained illegally by accusers.
