Zee Entertainment Enterprises and managing director and CEO Punit Goenka have appealed to the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) order barring them from accessing the securities market.The tribunal has listed the matter for hearing on Wednesday after the appellants sought an urgent hearing and interim relief on Monday.The appellants have sought a stay on the market-access restrictions pending the final hearing of their appeals. They have also sought relief to proceed with Zee’s ₹3,143.5 crore preferential issue of fully convertible warrants to promoter group entity Sunbright Mauritius Investments.According to the appeal document seen by businessline, Goenka has asked SAT to “permit the Proposed Allottee to subscribe to the Warrant Issue and permit the Appellant in his capacity as MD & CEO of the Company to give effect to the shareholder’s resolution dated July 31, 2026.”SEBI, in its July 31 order, barred Zee from accessing the securities market for two months. It also restrained Goenka and promoter Subhash Chandra from accessing the market for 12 months each. The regulator imposed penalties of ₹30 lakh on Zee, ₹58 lakh on Goenka and ₹60 lakh on Chandra. The total penalty of ₹1.48 crore has to be paid within 45 days.The probe relates to the alleged unauthorised use of Zee’s property in Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills as security for loans taken by four Essel Group entities from Indiabulls Housing Finance.The appeal said SEBI’s findings of fraud are based on an “incorrect interpretation of the PFUTP Regulations” and that Goenka did not exercise any “control” over the four borrower entities, or know about or participate in the alleged mortgage creation. He derived no benefit from any alleged mortgage creation, and did not induce any investors to deal in Zee’s securities in any manner, it said.“The Impugned Order fails to consider that the Appellant in his capacity as MD & CEO of the Company is bound to give effect to the shareholders’ resolution for the issue of warrants to the Proposed Allottee in terms of the EGM dated July 31, 2026, where the Warrant Issue was approved with a majority of 76.6 percent, following the in-principle approval from the Exchanges,” the appeal said.The market-access restriction on the MD & CEO is “punitive” and “not preventive” in nature, the appeal said, arguing that the finding that he had knowledge of the alleged mortgage was based on conjecture and lacked any evidentiary basis.According to the regulator’s findings, the property was used to secure loans worth about ₹726 crore. Its title deeds were deposited with the lender on December 27, 2018, and were released on June 1, 2020, after about ₹225 crore was repaid.SEBI said the transaction did not have the required approvals from Zee’s audit committee, board and shareholders. It also alleged that the company did not make adequate disclosures about the pledge, the related-party transaction and the contingent liability arising from it.The regulator also examined Zee’s disclosures around litigation before the Delhi High Court, a non-disposal undertaking involving the property and the subsequent release of the title deeds.Following the SEBI order, a Zee spokesperson had said that the SEBI order has no direct bearing on the fund-raising exercise.Published on August 10, 2026