Supreme Court declines to hear Chitra Ramkrishna's plea in NSE co-location case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a plea by Chitra Ramkrishna, former managing director and chief executive of the National Stock Exchange, challenging an order taking cognisance of offences under the anti-corruption law in the co-location scam case.

Ms. Ramkrishna had moved the top court against a Delhi High Court judgment of July 9, which dismissed her challenge to the trial court's cognisance order.

The matter was placed before a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran. Senior advocate Balbir Singh, appearing for Ms. Ramkrishna, contended that the NSE is a private company and that it cannot be held that his client was discharging a public duty.

Disposing of the plea, the bench observed that this argument could be raised before the trial court, which would consider it on its own merits.

The High Court had held that the NSE performs a "public duty" and that Ms. Ramkrishna, as its CEO and managing director, "equally performed a function and duty in which the public at large is invested".

It also upheld the sanction granted by the NSE Board of Directors to prosecute her, noting that the order was conditional to the limited extent of determining issues relating to the applicability of the Prevention of Corruption Act to her, and could not be set aside on that ground alone.

Before the High Court, Ms. Ramkrishna had argued that the definition of "public servant" under the PC Act was extremely vague and liable to be struck down, and that the provision could not apply to private persons employed with a private limited company. The High Court said it did not find the definition so vague or uncertain as to render it unconstitutional.

The High Court observed that the NSE is a recognised stock exchange that is not an ordinary business venture but performs vital economic functions in the public interest, including the protection of investors, and that its shareholding lies majorly with government companies.

It clarified that whether the petitioner could be said to be performing a public duty in the internal management of the NSE, and the extent to which she was in charge of its day-to-day functioning and general policy decisions, were matters of evidence that could not be determined at this stage. The chargesheet filed by the CBI could also not be quashed by deciding such mixed questions of fact and law, it added.

The co-location scam case concerns the alleged abuse of the algorithm and the co-location facility by certain brokers in conspiracy with unidentified officials to make windfall profits between 2010 and 2014, when Ms. Ramkrishna was managing the exchange's affairs. She was appointed joint managing director in 2009 and held the post till March 31, 2013, before being elevated to MD and CEO on April 1, 2013.

The CBI arrested her on March 6, 2022, in connection with the case registered in 2018. She was granted bail by the High Court in September 2022.