New Delhi, Oct. 29 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed TMC MP Mahua Moitra's plea seeking a direction to the securities market regulator SEBI to mandate public disclosure of the identities of the ultimate beneficial owners, or persons who ultimately own or control investments, in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) and Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), holding that such a direction could not be issued by the Court in the absence of an existing legal or regulatory framework requiring such disclosure.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna, R Mahadevan and DK Upadhyay said the relief sought by Moitra would effectively require the Court to create a new regulatory framework for public disclosure, which it could not do while exercising it...