Ironically, Parekh's term as president comes to an end on March 26. The election fever is already under way to constitute the new governing board at the exchange. Parekh's removal has demoralised BSE brokers, with the Sensex crashing 150 points in the early hours of trading before covering a little lost ground to close the day with a net loss of 74 points.

Parekh has been charged with having influenced the exchange administration and getting margins reduced, getting the tradingsystem opened beyond trading hours for select brokers and not having kept the governing board fully informed.

Talking to The Financial Express, Parekh said: "I will appeal to the appellate authority in 3-4 days. Sebi has accused me of certain actions. These actions were carried out for the benefit of the investors and not for the benefit of a select group of brokers. Moreover, the entire incident happened eight months back. I fail to understand why they have now felt it urgent to move me out of office after such a long gap." He was disturbed as to why Sebi has raked up an issue after eight months.

Sebi's directive came after its investigations into the payments crisis of June, 1998, which had rocked the bourses following manipulation in scrips of Sterlite, Videocon International and BPL. The watchdog, on February 10, had issued a showcause notice to BSE executive director RC Mathur, vice-president Rajendra Banthia and Parekh.

Sebi chairman DR Mehta issued orders on Tuesday evening after finding Parekh'sreply to the showcause notice "unsatisfactory".

According to a Sebi press release, the high court dismissed Parekh's petition. The court however said Parekh can continue as president of the bourse till 11.00 am on March 31 to give him time to go in appeal against the Sebi order to the appellate authority.

A BSE statement issued on Wednesday said that the court did not entertain Parekh's petition since there was an alternative appeal mechanism available to him (appellate authority in the finance ministry).

Following the high court order, which also barred Parekh from attending any governing board meetings or discharging any duties as president of the bourse, Parekh did not attend the governing board meeting of the BSE on Wednesday.

BSE further maintained that it had not received a copy of the Sebi order and would hence take a view on the future course of action only after receiving a copy of the order.

Sebi chairman DR Mehta was not available for comment as he is out of the city while Sebi seniorexecutive director LK Singhvi is learnt to be out of the country and, hence, he too was unavailable for comment.

The Sebi move to suspend Parekh may have come a trifle too late as he was in any case stepping down from the BSE president's post on March 26, when the bourse would elect its new president.

In the first phase of the probe, Sebi had indicted 18 brokers including exchange vice-president Rajendra Banthia's Harvest Deal Securities for having allegedly acted in connivance with front companies of scam-accused Harshad Mehta to rig up the share prices of certain scrips.

The second stage of investigations involved the role of stock exchanges and showcause notices were issued to BSE and the National Stock Exchange. Mathur, Parekh and Banthia had also received showcause notices in their individual capacities.

Sebi is currently finalising the third stage of investigations into the alleged role of the promoters of the three companies in the post-crisis bailout of the defaulters.