The Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently appointed Taruvai Subayya Krishnamurthy as an observer to oversee the e-voting process, which was scheduled between December 26-29, for winding up of Franklin Templeton’s six mutual fund schemes.

The appointment was made after the Supreme Court’s December 9 order which also said that the result of the e-voting would not be announced and would be produced before the apex court in a sealed cover along with the report of the observer.

“Accordingly, Sebi has appointed Shri Taruvai Subayya Krishnamurthy, the former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India as the Observer on December 18, 2020,” Sebi said.

On Friday, Chennai Financial Markets and Accountability (CFMA) said it has filed an application in the Supreme Court alleging that despite the apex court’s December 9 order, no apparent steps have been taken by Sebi to appoint an observer in the matter.

The concern of CFMA is, though the aforesaid order was passed on the 9th of this month, there has been no apparent steps taken by SEBI to appoint an observer. The voting is scheduled to commence from tomorrow (December 26) and there is no update about who the observer is, or his/her e-mail id, contact information, etc, CFMA had said.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Sebi said it has also constituted a technical assistance team that will assist the observer.

Members of the team are: Chief General Manager of Sebi B.N Sahoo, Chief Operating Officer of Central Depository Services Ltd Nayana Ovalekar, company secretary and scrutiniser K. Sriram and assistant directors of Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad M Krishna and Ch E Sai Prasad.

The six schemes are Franklin India Low Duration Fund, Franklin India Ultra Short Bond Fund, Franklin India Short Term Income Plan, Franklin India Credit Risk Fund, Franklin India Dynamic Accrual Fund and Franklin India Income Opportunities Fund.

Franklin Templeton MF announced closure of these six debt mutual fund schemes on April 23, citing redemption pressure and lack of liquidity in the bond market.