Supreme Court Upholds Sanction for Former NSE CEO in Corruption Probe

In a Tuesday ruling, the Supreme Court refused to interfere with the sanction granted for prosecuting former National Stock Exchange managing director and CEO Chitra Ramakrishna under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The bench, comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran, dismissed her petition against a Delhi High Court order that affirmed the sanction. The high court had concluded that the NSE performs a public duty because of its critical function in financial markets, making its senior executives fall within the definition of public servants.

While the Supreme Court did not overturn the sanction, it permitted Ramakrishna to raise the public-duty issue before the trial court. The case stems from the NSE co-location controversy, where the CBI alleges that brokers received preferential server access between 2010 and 2014 and that Ramakrishna facilitated the scheme and improperly appointed adviser Anand Subramanian.