Mumbai: Shikha Gupta, whose name was cleared by the board of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for the post of executive director during former chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch's tenure, has decided against joining the regulator in a rare instance of an approved candidate opting out of the senior role.After accepting Sebi's offer and indicating to the regulator that she would join the organisation in March, Gupta, a former tax director at Hindustan Unilever, conveyed her inability to take up the assignment, said sources. The regulator is likely to start the search process again for the post of executive director, sources said. Queries sent to Sebi and Gupta remained unanswered.Her appointment was controversial as she was associated with Hindustan Unilever (HUL), where the former Sebi chief's spouse Dhaval Buch had held a senior position.Madhabi Puri Buch completed her three-year term at Sebi in February this year. On March 1, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, a career bureaucrat, took charge as the new chairman of the regulatory body."It's a rare instance of someone declining such an offer," said a person close to the development.Gupta's candidature also triggered discontent among Sebi executives as Gupta was chosen for the position, with just a few months left for the regulatory chief to complete her term."The selected candidate has a background in taxation, which raised questions about how she will contribute to the regulator in framing capital market-related policies," said a person familiar with the development.Earlier, Buch had appointed Pramod Rao as executive director at Sebi from ICICI Bank. Buch worked with ICICI Group for the longest time of her career.“Unlike Sebi chairman and wholetime members, who are appointed by the government, executive directors — the ones from outside Sebi’s internal cadre — are selected through a search process conducted by the human resources department, with the final appointment requiring approval from the Sebi board,” said Sumit Agrawal, managing partner, Regstreet Law Advisors. “The Sebi Chairman exercises overall supervisory and administrative authority under the Sebi Act.” Sebi employees’ association favours all candidates to be internal. However, Sebi rules on recruitment say that a maximum of three candidates can be appointed from outside when the organisation is not able to get a suitable candidate internally. Gupta’s LinkedIn profile shows she was with HUL for a little over six years till April 2024. Before that, she was head of taxation in India at Swiss drugmaker Novartis. At present, there are 10 executive directors in Sebi, eight of whom are internal candidates, while two are external. Pramod Rao and Ram Mohan Rao are the two external candidates.
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