Mumbai, June 20 :    Mumbai, June 20:  In a major blow to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) today set aside the market regulator's orders banning Videocon International and BPL Ltd from accessing the capital markets for manipulating their scrips in 1998. The Sebi orders under Section 11 and 11b of Sebi Act against the two companies banning Videocon for three years and BPL for four years were not in the interests of investors and have no legal backing and hence cannot be sustained, SAT said in its ruling here today. In the absence of sufficient material evidence to establish that the two companies had directly or indirectly indulged in market manipulation, the market regulator's orders holding them guilty cannot sustain and therefore deserve to be set aside, SAT ruled. Section 11 and 11b of the Sebi Act are mainly focussed on investor protection and the latter does not even remotely empower the market regulator to impose penalties, SAT observed. For Sebi, it was the latest among a series of orders passed by SAT questioning its powers to impose penalties under Section 11 and 11B. In October last year, SAT had similarly set aside Sebi's order against Sterlite Industries Ltd which was banned from accessing the capital market for two years for manipulating its scrips during the same time. On an appeal by these two firms against prosecution proceedings launched by Sebi on them, SAT said it does not have jurisdiction to set aside the prosecution pending before the court. The then Sebi chairman D.R. Mehta, in his order dated April 19, 2001 had directed Videocon not to raise money from the market for three years. Mehta had also directed that prosecution proceedings be initiated against the company through its directors/officers - V.N. Dhoot, S.K. Shelgikar and S.N. Hegde - for indulging in unfair trade practices and violating the Sebi Act, 1992.