Soon after the tribunal pronounced its order, the shares of DLF soared higher by about 8 per cent. The stock was trading 7.75 per cent up at Rs 160.5 at the BSE in early afternoon trade.

Though the proposal wasn’t mentioned in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget speech, the Finance Bill proposes to amend sections 45U and 45W of the RBI Act, which effectively takes away the central bank’s powers to regulate government securities and other money market instruments.

It has introduced the concept of a ‘Saral (Simple) Account’, with much more relaxed Know Your Customer requirements as compared to a normal demat account. Such accounts are primarily aimed at investors who only participate in the cash market, without availing other facilities like internet, mobile banking or margin and derivative trading.

From the proposed Bill in this regard, “all recognised associations under the Forward Contracts Regulation Act shall be deemed to be recognised stock exchanges under the Securities Contracts Regulation Act”.

Among other things, he said that this will help reduce wild speculation.

The regulator imposed penalties through two separate orders. One is for a sum of Rs 52 crore on DLF and seven officials. The second order is for Rs 34 crore on Sudipti Estates Ltd and 34 other related entities.

The move had attracted widespread criticism from all stakeholders - including AMCs and distributors. And that phase lasted for not less than four long years. Even today, it is not surprising to see people wishing for a return of entry load, though in hushed tones.

In an interim order, the regulator barred a little more than 30 entities, including the promoters of Kamalakshi, from accessing the capital market. This is the fourth order by Sebi in its probe in this regard, where unscrupulous entities apparently attempted to launder up to Rs 20,000 crore.

Investor awareness programmes, coupled with adoption of districts and steps to re-energise the MF industry by Sebi, have resulted in higher participation from beyond the top-15 (B-15) cities.

Sebi will await a final cue from the finance ministry and an announcement is likely to be closer to the Budget day, said a person familiar with the developments.