1. Since in the above-captioned three petitions, quashing of Criminal Complaint Case No.152/2000 titled "Securities & Exchange Board of India v. M/s. Ideal Hotels & Industries Ltd. & Anr." and summoning order of 29th March, 2000 is sought on identical grounds, therefore, with the consent of learned counsel for the parties, these three petitions were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. Petitioners-Sudhir Gupta and Prakash Gupta are the Directors of M/s. Ideal Hotels & Industries Limited whereas petitioner-Sudhir Gupta is the Director of M/s. Fidelity Finvest Pvt. Ltd. Petitioners claim parity with their co-accused-Vinod Kumar and Pankaj Goyal, who have been discharged by Sessions Court vide order of 24th July, 2002. The three grounds upon which quashing of the complaint in question and summoning order is sought by petitioners are as under: -

(i) Whether or not the complaint is liable to be quashed qua the Petitioner on the ground of delay in filing the complaint? (ii) Whether or not the Chairman, SEBI could have authorized the concerned SEBI official to file the complaint on behalf of SEBI without there being Delegation of Powers in f