NEW DELHI: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has asked Sahara India and Subrata Roy Sahara to file within two weeks its reply to the public interest litigation alleging that a full page advertisement dated 17 March 2013 by Sahara India Parivar alleged to be against the provisions of law.

Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Dr Satish Chandra passed the order on the PIL filed by IPS officer Amitabh Thakur and social activist Nutan Thakur which says that a private person and a private organisation have openly denigrated and accused Sebi, which is a statutory body established to safeguard the interests of investors and to act as the market regulator.

The ad has also allegedly criticised Justice B N Agarwal’s conduct while both Sebi and Justice Agarwal are only performing their official duty. The matter is still sub-judice before the Supreme Court and hence these people could have presented their grievance there.

This act of criticising Sebi through an ad prima-facie is alleged to be a criminal misconduct under sections 186 and 189 IPC and provisions of Companies Act 1956.

The petitioners’ counsel Ashok Pande sought a complete ban on all advertisements where any constitutional or statutory body is criticised. He also asked for enquiry into the issue and necessary subsequent legal actions against Sahara India Parivar and Subrata Roy.