The Supreme Court of India has approved a Rs 1,491 crore settlement between the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the National Stock Exchange, ending nearly ten years of regulatory and legal battles over co-location and dark fibre issues.
The Supreme Court of India on Friday approved a settlement between the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the National Stock Exchange in the long-running co-location and dark fibre disputes, closing a case that had dogged the exchange for nearly a decade. A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran disposed of the proceedings after the parties moved to resolve the regulatory fights through SEBI’s settlement mechanism.
Under the agreement, NSE will pay Rs 1,491.21 crore in total, with Rs 1,223.56 crore tied to the co-location matter and Rs 267.65 crore linked to the dark fibre case. According to the reports, the exchange had already deposited Rs 776.47 crore and later paid another Rs 714.74 crore after SEBI accepted the revised proposal, completing the settlement amount.
The cases stemmed from allegations that some brokers gained unfair access to trading infrastructure and market data through NSE’s co-location set-up. In the co-location matter, SEBI had questioned the exchange’s handling of Tick-by-Tick data, along with issues such as the absence of a randomiser, IP allocation, load-balancing and access to secondary servers. The dark fibre dispute centred on point-to-point connectivity provided through an unauthorised service provider, and the alleged advantage that arrangement gave to certain brokers.
The settlement follows earlier regulatory and judicial turns in the dispute. SEBI’s Whole Time Member had ordered NSE in April 2019 to disgorge Rs 624.89 crore plus interest, but the Securities Appellate Tribunal set aside that direction in January 2023 while still ordering a Rs 100 crore payment to the Investor Protection and Education Fund. SEBI later pursued its challenges before the Supreme Court, and NSE filed revised settlement terms in March 2026. The court’s order now brings those appeals to an end as NSE’s first initial public offering remains open for subscription.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to inform and educate, not to recommend or endorse any financial product, investment or strategy. Please consider your own financial circumstances and seek professional advice where appropriate before making financial decisions.
