The UTI move follows the SEBI decision to initiate criminal prosecution proceedings against Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) and five of its top former and current directors including chairman K B Dadiseth for alleged violation of insider trading norms. Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) has already filed a counter petition before the Mumbai high court against parts of the appellate authority's order on the insider trading case.

It may be recalled that Sebi had held HLL and five of its directors guilty of insider-trading in the BBLIL share purchase before the merger. Apart from ordering prosecution against the directors, Sebi had directed the company to compensate Unit Trust Rs 3.04 crore as the notional loss suffered by it in the transaction. Hindustan Lever appealedagainst the Sebi order in the Appellate Authority in the Finance Ministry which set aside the regulator's order. At this stage, the trust stepped in with an appeal seeking a higher compensation of Rs 7.52 crore from the company.

When the SEBI approached the High Court against the MoF panel's order, UTI remained as a silent spectator. The high court had pulled up UTI for this, thereby forcing the UTI to file a petition in the matter.

When the SEBI petition against the MoF Panel was taken up in September, HLL's counsels had contended that even though the final order of the appellate authority had exonerated HLL, there were certain parts of the order which were adverse to the company. The bench had then asked HLL to file a separate petition if it felt aggrieved with the appellate authority order.

The prosecution complaint by SEBI was filed before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate on November 23. This is the first instance of Sebi initiating criminal prosecution against violation of insidertrading norms.

Sebi has accused HLL, its former chairman S M Datta, current chairman K B Dadiseth, former vice-chairman R Gopalakrishnan and directors A Lahiri and MK Sharma for having violated laws against insider trading when it sold eight lakh shares of Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd (BBLIL) to the Unit Trust of India (UTI) prior to the merger of BBLIL with HLL in 1996.