SEBI’S SURVEILLANCE POWERS VS MCA’S ADMINISTRATIVE ROLE: WHO GUARDS THE MARKET MORE EFFECTIVELY?

India’s rapidly evolving financial and corporate ecosystem demands robust oversight to ensure investor protection, market integrity, and systemic stability. This paper critically examines and contrasts the surveillance powers of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) against the administrative role of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). While SEBI is the principal watchdog of the securities market, empowered with real-time monitoring and enforcement tools, the MCA’s mandate centres on broad-based corporate regulation, governance, and compliance under the Companies Act and allied laws. Through analysis of statutory frameworks, jurisdictional overlaps, structural autonomy, and enforcement mechanisms including the role of technology and inter-agency coordination, in this study, it explores the effectiveness of each authority in guarding their intersecting domains and safeguarding the investors. By assessing regulatory responses to financial and corporate frauds, this article offers nuanced insights into India’s dual-regulator model. This article also provides illuminating study and differences between the role and functioning of both the agencies and their manner and structure leading to protection of financial market and the corporate governance. In this article it further discusses the current stands and also the changes that’ve been made by such agencies to detect risks and fraud to empower and protect their investor and public base. Keywords: SEBI, Regulator, enforcement, Investors, Corporate