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Informist, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026

 

--HC rejects plea against SEBI's no-objection certificate for NSE's IPO

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Monday rejected a petition challenging the no-objection certificate issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India for the proposed initial public offering of the National Stock Exchange. The high court said former judicial officer K.C. Aggarwal had filed the petition only to interdict the exchange's IPO. 

 

Aggarwal had alleged that the National Stock Exchange had violated SEBI's framework on corporate action adjustments, introduced to ensure value neutrality in derivatives trading during bonus issues, stock splits and extraordinary dividends. Instead of adjusting both price and quantity, NSE changed only prices, debiting dividend-equivalent amounts directly from derivative traders' accounts, including that of Aggarwal. This debit by the stock exchange was "ultra vires" of the statute, he added. 

 

Justice Jasmeet Singh said that according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992, any person aggrieved by the no objection certificate granted to a company was entitled to appeal before the Securities Appellate Tribunal. Further, the Delhi High Court did not have the territorial jurisdiction to hear Aggarwal's petition as everything regarding the no-objection certificate was done in Mumbai, said Justice Singh. The allegation of wrongful debit against the NSE by the petitioner was already part of three proceedings filed by him, the court added.

 

The petitioner said his complaints to NSE were closed without a hearing and the markets regulator upheld the exchange's actions without independent review. The petitioner had sought the markets regulator to not grant any approval for NSE's initial public offering until the matter was fully investigated and addressed.

 

The regulator said that it was an "extortionist petition" filed by Aggarwal and the petitioner only wanted to stall the initial public offering. The regulator said that Aggarwal had filed multiple petitions before various courts and no relief was given to him in all those cases. The regulator sought the court to reject Aggarwal's petition on the "maintainability" aspect and added that the interests of a lot of investors were involved in the case.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

 

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