More than 50 applicants have joined the race to get appointed as whole time members (WTMs) of India's market regulator, SEBI. A joint secretary-level official from the finance ministry, a few former income tax officers, a retired Maharashtra cadre IPS officer, a former executive director (ED) of SEBI, and five serving SEBI EDs have thrown their hats in the ring for the two WTM posts up for grabs, sources in the know told Zee Business.

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The term of the SEBI's current WTM, SK Mohanty, ends this month, while the other WTM, Ananta Barua, will vacate his post in July. 

"The call for the interview has not been made yet, but it will be conducted in July and August," one of the applicants said.

Two Indian Revenue Service officers, one of whom is from the southern state and had earlier served as a SEBI, ED, and another, a management graduate from Lucknow, are the favourites and leading the race," the sources said.

"Among SEBI EDs, Anand Baiwar, SV Murlidhar Rao, VS Sundaresan, Pramod Rao, and Amarjeet Singh are in the race to the WTM posts, the sources said.

Among the two retiring WTMs, Mohanty is eligible for another extension since he is below the age of 65 years, the retirement age of senior SEBI officials.

A former income tax official, Mohanty joined SEBI in September 2015 from the erstwhile commodity market regulator, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC).

In FMC, he oversaw the probe into the NSEL scam under the tutelage of the then commodity market regulator, Ramesh Abhishek.

In SEBI, he was first made an ED and then became the WTM in 2018.

For a long time, Mohanty oversaw market regulations and the commodity derivatives department before the portfolio was handed over to another WTM.

According to sources, if Mohanty gets another extension, he would be the longest serving WTM, who has completed his five years.

SEBI pays a salary of Rs 4 lakh per month to its WTMs, which is equivalent to the pay scale of an Additional Secretary-rank officer in the Central government.

There are currently four WTMs in SEBI who have quasi-judicial powers to not only be part of the law-making process and executive decisions but also punish wrongdoers and issue stringent orders.

Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee (FSRASC), a six-member team headed by the cabinet secretary, will interview the shortlisted candidates and send their names to the appointments committee of the cabinet headed by the Prime Minister (PM) for final approval.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Principal Secretary to the PM, Pramod Kumar Mishra, are the key members of FSRASC. SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch can also make her recommendations to the government. As per the sources, the SEBI chief may seek the appointment of one internal candidate for the sake of continuity.