SEBI v. Ashesh Shailesh Mehta and Shivangi Ashesh Mehta (Bliss Consultants, unregistered portfolio management, 2025)
Judgment entered
Checked against the primary document on October 9, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, in a single reading of the order; an independent second reading of 60 SEBI records agreed on every field for 56, the four misses being penalty amounts; a later sample of 50 of the SEBI records added on 9 October agreed on every field for 46. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.
In April 2025 SEBI ordered Ashesh Shailesh Mehta, who ran Bliss Consultants, and Shivangi Ashesh Mehta to refund client money with 12 per cent interest, barred them from the securities market for at least three years and penalised them Rs 10 lakh and Rs 6 lakh. Clients had paid the unregistered business to trade NIFTY options for a share of profits and stopped receiving returns or refunds from June 2023.
The record
| Agency | SEBI (India) |
|---|---|
| Date filed | 2025-04-24 |
| Date resolved | 2025-04-24 |
| Court | SEBI executive director / chief general manager |
| Status | judgment |
| Asset class | derivatives |
| Instruments | NIFTY index options |
| Venue | NSE |
| Criminal parallel | No |
| Bars imposed | restrained from the securities market for 3 years, or until 3 years after refunds are completed if later |
| Defendants | Ashesh Shailesh Mehta (sole proprietor, Bliss Consultants) ; Shivangi Ashesh Mehta |
| Techniques |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- —
- Disgorgement
- —
- Prejudgment interest
- —
- Total relief
- —
- Alleged gain
- —
- Penalty as published
- 1.6m INR
What is alleged to have happened
This order of 24 April 2025 was passed by a SEBI quasi-judicial authority against Ashesh Shailesh Mehta, sole proprietor of Bliss Consultants, and Shivangi Ashesh Mehta, described as its director of operations. SEBI received complaints from clients who had invested for trading in NIFTY options on the strength of presentations and assurances, were paid regular returns for a time and were charged 30 per cent of profits as a fee. Bliss ran a website and an invite-only mobile app, and the complaints said that returns and repayment of the invested amounts had stopped from June 2023.
SEBI examined whether this was portfolio management carried on without registration and whether it also breached the PFUTP Regulations. The show cause notice of September 2024 charged breaches of section 12(1) of the SEBI Act and the portfolio-manager regulations, as well as regulations 3 and 4 of the PFUTP Regulations and section 12A, and sought directions and penalties under sections 15HA and 15HB. The examination looked at the client agreements and at bank statements showing very large credits and debits through the business accounts, and at the options trading in the names of the noticees.
The operative directions require the two noticees, jointly and severally, to refund net monies collected from clients within three months with simple interest at 12 per cent a year from collection, with their assets frozen except for refunds and any balance placed in escrow with SEBI. They are restrained from the securities market for three years, or until three years after the refunds are completed if that is later, and may not run portfolio management or similar activity without registration.
Penalties under sections 15HA and 15HB are Rs 10 lakh on Mr Mehta and Rs 6 lakh on Ms Mehta, Rs 16 lakh in total, payable in 45 days.
The record does not show the total amount owed to clients, whether any refunds were made, or whether the order was appealed.
This library has no technique that fits unregistered portfolio management with unpaid returns, so the matter is tagged with none. It is included because the notice invoked the fraud regulations. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.
For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the order.
Timeline
- 2025-04-24 SEBI order
Primary documents
Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.