N.L. Lakhanpal, Member. - The appeal was taken up for final disposal with the consent of parties.

2. The appellants had made a public announcement on 10-4-2002 for acquisition of shares in Hindustan Zinc Limited (hereinafter referred to as ‘HZL’ or ‘the target company’) pursuant to the appellants participation in the Government of India Public Sector Disinvestment Programme. Since HZL was a listed company, the provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 1997 (hereinafter ‘Takeover Code’) were attracted and a letter of offer, pursuant to the public announcement was issued to all the share- holders of the target company as required under the Takeover Code. The shareholders who tendered their acceptance in response to the appellants’ open offer included the following 9 persons, not resident in India.