5C. (1) No insider shall communicate, provide, or allow access to any unpublished price sensitive information to any person including other insiders except where such communication is in furtherance of legitimate purposes, performance of duties or discharge of legal obligations.
NOTE: This provision is intended to cast an obligation on all insiders who are essentially persons in possession of unpublished price sensitive information to handle such information with care and to deal with the information with them when transacting their business strictly on a need-to-know basis. It is also intended to lead to organisations developing practices based on need-to-know principles for treatment of information in their possession.
(2) No person shall procure from or cause the communication by any insider of unpublished price sensitive information, except in furtherance of legitimate purposes, performance of duties or discharge of legal obligations.
NOTE: This provision is intended to impose a prohibition on unlawfully procuring possession of unpublished price sensitive information. Inducement and procurement of unpublished price sensitive information not in furtherance of one‟s legitimate duties and discharge of obligations would be illegal under this provision.
(3) The board of directors of an asset management company with the approval of the Trustees shall make a policy for determination of “legitimate purposes”.
Explanation – For the purpose of illustration, the term “legitimate purpose” shall include sharing of unpublished price sensitive information in the ordinary course of business by an insider with Trustees, Registrars and Share Transfer Agents, Custodians, Valuation Agencies, Fund Accountants, Association of Mutual funds of India, Credit Rating Agencies, legal advisors, auditors or other advisors or consultants, except where such sharing has been carried out to evade or circumvent the prohibitions of these regulations.
(4) Any person in receipt of unpublished price sensitive information pursuant to a “legitimate purpose” shall be considered an “insider” for purposes of this chapter and due notice shall be given to such persons to maintain confidentiality of such unpublished price sensitive information in compliance with these regulations.
(5) For the purpose of sub-regulation (4), the board of directors of an asset management company shall require the parties to execute agreements to contract confidentiality and non-disclosure obligations on the part of such parties and such parties shall keep information so received confidential, except for the purpose specified herein and shall not otherwise deal in the units of a mutual fund when in possession of unpublished price sensitive information.
(6) The board of directors or head(s) of the organisation of every person required to handle unpublished price sensitive information shall ensure that a structured digital database is maintained containing the nature of unpublished price sensitive information and the names of such persons who have shared the information and also the names of such persons with whom information is shared under this regulation along with the Permanent Account Number or any other identifier authorized by law where Permanent Account Number is not available. Such database shall not be outsourced and shall be maintained internally with adequate internal controls and checks such as time stamping
and audit trails to ensure non-tampering of the database.
(7) The board of directors or head(s) of the organisation of every person required to handle unpublished price sensitive information shall ensure that the structured digital database is preserved for a period of not less than eight years after completion of the relevant transactions and in the event of receipt of any information from the Board regarding any investigation or enforcement proceedings, the relevant information in the structured digital database shall be preserved till the completion of such proceedings.