Highly-placed sources in the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said today that the committee, headed by former UTI chairman S A Dave, would present the draft regulations to the board on October 15.

SEBI was likely to take a final view on the recommendations on that day and announce the regulations a few days later, the sources said. If the recommendations were accepted by the market watchdog, it would mean that teak investment companies and other firms promoting agro schemes would be barred from indicating any returns on their schemes.

Advertisements for such schemes would be required to desist from making any promises on assured returns and make clear that the downward risk in investing in such schemes was open-ended.

SEBI had already barred plantationinvestment companies from accepting public investment without getting a credit rating for their collective schemes. It has prescribed a scale of one to five for these plans.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court today impleaded all agro-plantation and collective investment scheme companies as respondents in a petition filed by a forum seeking protection of small investors against the payment defaults by these companies.

A division bench comprising justice Anil Dev Singh and justice Mukul Mudgal had earlier made 592 companies respondents on the basis of a list provided by Securities and Exchange of Board of India (SEBI) last week.

Petitioner forum for investors in agro-plantation companies had submitted a list of 498 companies to the court against whom they wanted investigations initiated by authorities.

Earlier, the high court had barred 592 agro-plantation companies from raising funds by floating a new scheme without prior permission of the court.

The bench also directed these companies to get themselvescredit rated from a recognised credit rating agency approved by SEBI. After today's clarification, the high court order will be applicable to all agro-plantation companies in the country eve if they do not figure in SEBI's list which was submitted to the court last week.

SEBI was directed by the court to publish the main features of the order in leading newspapers on October 21. The case will come up for hearing on October 29.