India’s Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Monday, Oct. 26, set aside a Rs 14,963,325 penalty imposed on Ventura Securities by the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX). It said the penalty order could not stand because one of its signatories had already left MCX’s Member Committee.
SAT directed the exchange to restore Rs 17,656,723.50 to Ventura, reversing a debit made Oct. 14. The amount included the penalty and applicable goods and services tax, the order says. It also awarded Ventura Rs 100,000 in costs. MCX’s committee had imposed the underlying penalty in a Sept. 28 order.
The ruling came in Ventura Securities Limited v. Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited, Appeal No. 363 of 2026. The tribunal’s account says S.V. Krishnamohan, an independent external expert on the committee, ceased to be a member effective March 20. MCX acknowledged he had left before signing the penalty order and described his signature as a “bona fide error.” SAT rejected MCX’s request to return the case for reconsideration, calling the order “unsustainable in law.”
Ventura’s counsel told SAT that a client’s open position in natural gas options had gone beyond a 2% limit and reached 27%, and that MCX had not issued an alert. The tribunal noted that MCX’s counsel did not refute those submissions. But it did not determine whether the client had breached a limit or whether the exchange was required to issue an alert.
SAT also recorded Ventura’s submission that a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) circular dated Sept. 9 set a maximum penalty of Rs 200,000 for the violation. MCX did not dispute that point, according to the order.
SAT said the exchange’s conduct, as a “first line regulator,” “cannot be countenanced.” The order contains conflicting language on costs: its operative directions award Ventura Rs 100,000, while its closing line says, “No costs.”
