JUDGMENT

Dr. AR. Lakshmanan, J. — The Securities and Exchange Board of India (hereinafter referred to as ‘SEBI’) is the appellant in the present appeal under Section 15-Z of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992. This appeal was filed against the final judgment and order dated 21.08.2003 passed by the Securities Appellate Tribunal, Mumbai (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Tribunal’) in appeal No. 50 of 2002 and 51 of 2002 raising an important question of law as to whether once it is conclusively established that the Mutual Fund has violated the terms of the Certificate of Registration and the statutory Regulations i.e. SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Regulation") the imposition of penalty becomes a sine qua non of the violation.

2. The respondents have not chosen to enter appearance though they were served with the notice. Since the service is complete and the appeals are ready for hearing, the above appeals were listed for final hearing.

3. The Appellant Board, a body corporate, has been established under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 by the Central Government, inter alia, to protect the interest of the inves