The Supreme Court on Friday directed market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), to give Reliance Industries Ltd access to certain documents which have been relied upon by it in its probe into a share acquisition matter.

In a major relief to RIL, a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, said the market regulator has a “duty to act fairly” and asked it to share relied upon documents to the private firm, which claimed that these papers exonerate it.

“The Sebi is a regulator and has a duty to act fairly. It is not to circumvent the rule of law and they have to show fairness. We allow this and direct Sebi to furnish the document sought by RIL,” the CJI said.

The verdict came on an appeal of RIL which had moved against the judgment of the Bombay High Court.

Sebi alleged irregularities in its own share acquisition by RIL during 1994 to 2000 and the case had arisen following a complaint by S. Gurumurthy to the market regulator.

Sebi had alleged that RIL along with Reliance Petroleum had circuitously funded the acquisition of its own shares in violation of the Sections 77 and 77A of the Companies Act, 1956.