In a clean up operation, the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Thursday sacked the governing board of the Ahmedabad Stock Exchange accusing it of failure to curb unofficial trading by brokers there and appointed an administrator in its place for a year.

Superceding the ASE governing board for one year and appointing P K Ghosh as administrator, Sebi chairman G N Bajpai, in his Tuesday's order, came down heavily on the bourse, saying that the ASE board had failed to ensure proper governance and implementation of Sebi directives and provisions of Securities Contract Regulation Act.

Sebi said that the ASE in September had submitted a false report that the unofficial market was not conducted within its premises and members were not participating in such a market.

In his order, Bajpai observed that the governing board, which cannot even think of ways and means to ensure that illegal activities are not carried on, does not deserve to continue.

"Sebi is mandated to ensure safety and integrity of the market and restore the confidence of investors in the exchange," he said.

The regulator had initiated similar action against Pune and Bhubaneshwar stock exchanges for failure to govern the affairs of bourse, while in the case of Bombay Stock Exchange, it had asked the then president Anand Rathi and other directors to step down following the March 2001 scam.