SAT adjourns NSE co-location matter to Sept 18 after SEBI seeks time

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) Monday adjourned the NSE co-location matter to September 18 after capital markets regulator Sebi sought more time to reply to petitions.

A division bench of SAT presided over by Justice Tarun Agarwala, member CKG Nair and judicial member Justice MT Joshi adjourned the matter.

The matter pertains to one of the biggest orders passed by the Sebi on April 30 against NSE officials, including former heads Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narain, in the co-location case, where the largest stock bourse was found guilty of providing preferential treatment to select brokers.

The former heads of NSE, other officials and finally NSE moved the SAT against the order.

The SAT had on May 22 stayed Sebi rulings that directed the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to disgorge profits of over Rs 625 crore in the co-location case. It had directed the bourse to deposit Rs 625 crore with the Sebi in two weeks and given time to the regulator to file replies.

In April, the Sebi directed the exchange to disgorge profits of over Rs 1,000 crore and imposed a six-month ban on launching new derivative products besides taking action against other entities, including some current and former officials. The amount includes disgorgement of Rs 625 crore profit derived from dissemination of data in the co-location case.

The tribunal has also ordered the exchange to initiate an inquiry against its staff to find out if they had given any treatment preferential in terms of access to market data to certain brokers.

The NSE told the tribunal that it would not come out with an initial public offering for next six months in compliance with the Sebi order. In the co-location case, the regulator had barred the exchange from accessing the securities market for six months.