Mumbai: Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has refused to grant an interim stay on SEBI's order against Zee Entertainment's Subhash Chandra and Punit Goenka. According to media reports, Goenka and Chandra will be filing a reply in SEBI in two weeks on their interim order.

On June 12, the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) in an ex-parte interim order restrained Essel Group chairman Chandra and ZEEL Managing Director and CEO Goenka's from holding any directorship or key managerial positions in listed entities on account of alleged fund diversion.

In his arguments, Sebi's counsel Darius Khambata late in June said the material gathered by the market regulator in the last four months indicated alleged siphoning off funds and showed further investigations were already underway. Khambata also said the market regulator's actions are based on evidence.

Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, representing Goenka, said that by removing two key people from the company, Sebi has infringed upon their fundamental rights to be employed.

He also argued that investigations have not found any active irregularity about the role of the promoter or proof that the transactions are bogus.