While upholding an order passed by the member and core settlement guarantee fund committee (Committee) of NSE Clearing Ltd (NCL), the securities appellate tribunal (SAT) directed Edelweiss Custodial Services Ltd (now known as Nuvama Clearing Services Ltd) to reinstate shares belonging to clients of Anugrah Stock & Broking Pvt Ltd (Anugrah). In 2020, to recover these dues, Edelweiss sold the collaterals worth Rs460.32 crore furnished by Anugrah and applied the proceeds to meet Anugrah s clearing obligation towards NCL.
Terming the adjudication orders passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as arbitrary and violative of the principles of natural justice, the securities appellate tribunal (SAT) has quashed and drastically reduced penalties imposed against 19 entities.
Sebi had alleged that Reliance Strategic Investments, along with Morgan Stanley France (MSF), had knowingly traded in the puts of strike price 11,400 PE at a discount of 15%, 35% and 37% to the intrinsic value of the put options on July 31, August 8, and August 10, 2017, respectively.
Terming the order passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), imposing a penalty of Rs7 lakh on Jio Financial Services Ltd (erstwhile Reliance Strategic Investments Ltd), as erroneous and without any basis, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) quashed the order.
"To hold a simple one-way trade as manipulative when it is not a circular or reversal trade and in the absence of any shred of evidence of mutual arrangement with a motive to manipulate the market, the impugned order cannot be sustained and is quashed," the tribunal said in its 33-page order on Wednesday.