Corporate Governance: Financial Regulators and Courts Need To Be On the Same Page

Abstract

Real corporate governance requires tough financial regulators which effectively work to safeguard investors’ interests in securities and endeavour to create a proper environment for the securities market to develop. The financial regulators – Securities and Exchange Board of India, SEBI in India, and Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC in the US – have been created by the legislature. They are independent expert bodies and are vested with remarkable powers, but they have to work within the framework of law, which is interpreted by the courts. This paper examines the role of courts vis-à-vis expert bodies in general and financial regulators in particular, and highlights the importance of the two being on the same page for effective corporate governance.