SEBI to now send Summons & Notices via WhatsApp and Telegram

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will now deliver show cause notifications, summons, and orders to securities law violators using instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal, speeding up and streamlining the process.

This will be in addition to traditional communication methods such as e-mail, registered mail, courier, and fax.

“The legislation and regulation governing the securities market, as well as the regulatory framework, is always changing,” Zerick Dastur, founder of Zerick Dastur, advocates and lawyers, said. “The way of service of notifications and orders has also undergone revisions to fit the necessities of time in an effort to smoothen the system of adjudication and issuing of timely processes.”

The Supreme Court ruled in principle on July 11, 2020, that sending notices and summons, which are essential to the court process, through instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram, as well as emails, would be legal.

This innovation was essential, according to the report, because actual distribution of alerts during lockdown periods has proved challenging.

According to lawyers, the requirement that documents be served by several methods will function as a deterrent to receivers attempting to evade getting notices.

The courts use WhatsApp’s ‘blue-tick’ feature to identify whether the receiver has viewed the document being served.