To the relief of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and former MD and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday quashed the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) forfeiture order of Rs 624 crore against NSE.

The court has directed NSE to pay a fine of Rs 100 crore for failing to comply with due diligence. Legal representatives said the findings against NSE had been partially set aside.

In addition, the SAT also revoked the confiscation orders against Ramkrishna and former NSE CEO Ravi Narian. Legal sources said their disqualifications had been shortened from five years to a period already passed to relieve both parties. However, the findings against them in the SEBI order were backed up.

The tribunal dismissed the intervener’s appeal, and legal sources said that the findings against NSE in the case have been partially set aside.

During the hearing, the SAT also upheld all its findings on OPG Securities and referred the matter back to Sebi for recalculating the forfeited sum. The market watchdog has been given four months to recalculate.

The Law Point law firm in the matter represents Sebi.

In an April 2019 order against the NSE, the market regulator had ordered the exchange to pay Rs 624 along with an annual interest rate of 12%, commencing April 2014, in contravention of Securities Exchange and Clearing Corporation (SECC) regulations.

The custody issue refers to complaints against the NSE that it allegedly gave priority access to specific clients to provide them with a trading advantage.

NSE launched the colocation facility in 2009, allowing traders and brokers to set up their IT servers in NSE data centres for a fee. These participants have faster access to stock price information, resulting in more immediate trade execution.