Mumbai, March 8 :    Mumbai, March 8:  History was made today at Asia's oldest stock exchange when Deena Mehta became the first woman to head a premier bourse in the world - significantly on Women's Day. The significance of the appointment was, however, lost on the exchange authorities as its governing board went into a five-hour huddle to discuss the resignation of Anand Rathi, president of the 126-year-old Bombay Stock Exchange, amid a firestorm of allegations that he had passed on privileged information to a bear cartel that precipitated the meltdown in stocks over the past week. Mehta, who is the vice-president of the bourse, has been asked to officiate till the next president is elected at a meeting on April 1. Shell-shocked governing board members accepted Rathi's resignation without realising that they were creating history by pitchforking Mehta into the hot seat. Rathi has requested D.R. Mehta, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), to institute an enquiry into the charges against him. The BSE governing board also offered its full cooperation to the probe. Rathi is the second BSE president to depart under a cloud. In 1997, J.C. Parekh was forced to go after he became embroiled in an investigation into a share ramping operation relating to BPL and Videocon shares. Rathi, whose term was supposed to end on March 31, said he had to go in order to uphold the dignity of the office. Mehta told The Telegraph that the general body meeting of BSE stock brokers held after the board meeting unanimously reposed confidence in Rathi. However, they reluctantly accepted his resignation after Rathi pointed that he would be open to the accusation of trying to scupper a proper investigation if he stayed on. Regretting the resignation of the BSE president, over 450 members who attended the meeting 'wanted him to continue and fight the forces that wish to destabilise the markets and create these rumours,' the BSE said in a press release. Mehta said none of the BSE board members had taken advantage of any information that they were privy to nor had they passed on price-sensitive data to anyone else. Rathi's resignation capped a tumultuous week that saw the BSE sensitive index shed almost all its gains that were made when a euphoric market welcomed finance minister Yashwant Sinha's budget proposals. On Thursday, Sebi's clampdown on rampaging sellers had the desired effect when the Sensex opened at 4090 points, a 43 point jump over the previous day's closing level of 4046.89. The 30-scrip barometer of the market's mood continued to yo-yo through the day, hitting a high of 4108.03 and then plunging to a low of 4016.71 before closing at 4056.94, a modest rise of 10.05 points.