The Securities and Exchange Board of India is planning to delist more than 4,200 firms whose shares are not being traded. These include 1,200 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange, but their trading has been suspended as a result of a host of non-compliance issues for more than seven years, PTI reported.

Chairman of the market regulator UK Sinha said on Wednesday that there are more than 3,000 firms listed on various regional stock exchanges that are now defunct. He also warned that auditors turning a blind eye to discrepancies in the financial accounts of listed firms will face strong action. “Auditors cannot go scot-free if they have been certifying the books for years without pointing a finger at the lapses,” he said.

The drive to clean up the market will be completed this year. SEBI will initiate such exercises from now on to rid the market of what Sinha dubbed “a source of nuisance”. The SEBI chief said delisting these companies is one of the regulator's prime focuses the current fiscal. “We have already reduced the number of stock exchanges by successfully closing several defunct or non-functional regional exchanges…Now, our target is to reduce the number of listed companies where no or little trading is taking place,” he said.