Religare Enterprises Ltd (REL) has approached the BSE and NSE for the removal of Shivinder Mohan Singh and Malvinder Mohan Singh, who stepped down following allegations of siphoning off funds, as promoters and shift them to public shareholders category.

Following the exit of the Singh brothers, the new management under executive chairperson Rashmi Saluja had moved market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to remove and declassify them as REL promoters in 2018.

However, the decision got delayed after changes in norms by Sebi wherein stock exchanges were authorised to take a call on the declassification of promoters with shareholding up to 10 per cent.

By March 2018, the stakes of the Singh brothers had come down to 3 per cent which further fell to 0.88 per cent in June 2020, according to data available with the exchanges.

Even with 0.88 per cent, the exchanges are yet to declassify the Singh brothers and their associate companies as promoters.

The remaining 99.12 stake is with the public and the highest 6.83 per cent holding is with Resilient India Growth Fund, followed by World Bank arm International Finance Corporation at 4.97 per cent.

Having completed all the necessary work, including approval from the board and shareholders for the purpose, REL again approached the BSE and the NSE during the second half of the current financial year and a decision is pending with exchanges, sources said.