High court stays Rs 50-lakh fine on NSE in defamation case

Asks Moneylife to file a reply within two weeks to NSE's revision application

The high court (HC) on Monday stayed for two weeks its Rs 50-lakh penalty order on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in  a ‘defamation notice of motion’ case filed by the exchange against publication Moneylife. The bench has also asked Moneylife to file a reply within two weeks to NSE's revision application.

A week ago, NSE had filed an appeal in the HC, challenging its order.

On September 9, the HC had ordered the NSE to pay Rs 1.5 lakh each to Moneylife founders Sucheta Dalal and Debashish Basu and Rs 23.5 lakh each to Tata Memorial and Masina Hospital as donation within two weeks.

In June, Moneylife had published a whistle-blower's account of irregularities in the high-frequency trading systems of the NSE. It published the whistle-blower's letter, addressed to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the market regulator. Dalal and Basu had given proof of e-mails and text messages sent to seek responses from NSE's managing director and chief executive, Chitra Ramkrishna, and vice-chairman, Ravi Narain. On June 11, Dalal sent a mail to U K Sinha, Sebi chairman, with copies to Ramkrishna and Narain.

She sent a reminder mail on June 15 and a text message on June 16. The article was published on June 19. Moneylife then published a second article on July 8, seeking a probe the high-frequency trading systems at the exchange.

On July 21, the NSE said it had moved the HC for damages of Rs 100 crore, for defamatory statements in these articles. As relief in the meantime, it wanted these articles removed from the website.