Court Rules Against FSC Mandate Following Investigation Into 3 Separate Financial Firms

The Supreme Court has dealt a blow to the Financial Services Commission (FSC) by rejecting its application for a judicial review against a decision to overturn the suspension of two high-ranking executives.

On Monday, 12 January 2026, Judges David Chan Kan Cheong and Renuka Dabee ruled that the regulator failed to prove that the Financial Services Review Panel’s (FSRP) previous leniency was “unreasonable.”

The decision effectively confirms that the initial heavy sanctions imposed by the FSC will remain downgraded to simple warnings.

The Legal Battle

The dispute dates back to 1 April 2016, when the FSC revoked the licences of Arvind Babajee and Zeynub Soobratty following alleged failings at three firms:

• COPEX Management Services Limited (CMS)
• COPEX Trustees Limited (CTL)
• AIK Credit PLC

Mr Babajee, a director at all three entities, originally faced a four-year suspension. Ms Soobratty, a director at AIK, was handed a two-year suspension.

The Panel’s Intervention

The executives appealed these sanctions to the FSRP, which on 30 March 2018, quashed the suspensions in favour of formal warnings.

The Panel concluded that the FSC had exceeded its mandate by investigating the affairs of AIK Credit PLC, an area it deemed outside the commission’s specific remit for that inquiry.

Supreme Court Ruling

Dissatisfied with the FSRP’s intervention, the FSC sought a judicial review to reinstate the original penalties.

However, the Supreme Court bench noted that the FSC’s own Chief Executive had specifically requested an investigation into the affairs of CMS and CTL only.

The judges found “no fault” in the reasoning adopted by the Review Panel, noting that the regulator had not demonstrated any irrationality in the Panel’s decision-making process.

Note: This ruling concludes a decade-long legal process regarding the professional standing of the two directors within the Mauritian financial sector.

Source: Defi Media