A signature from someone who was no longer on the committee has cost MCX its Rs 1.49 crore penalty on Ventura Securities, with the Securities Appellate Tribunal setting the order aside after the exchange conceded the point.
Mumbai: Stockbroker Ventura Securities Limited has won its appeal before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), which quashed the penalty of Rs 1,49,63,325 imposed by the Member Committee of the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX), told the exchange to reverse the amount it had debited, and awarded Rs 1 lakh as costs [Ventura Securities Limited v. Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited].
Appeal No. 363 of 2026, along with connected miscellaneous applications, was heard by a Bench of Presiding Officer Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar and Technical Members Meera Swarup and Dr. Dheeraj Bhatnagar, and the order is dated October 26, 2026.
The admission that decided the appeal
The exchange accepted before the Tribunal that S.V. Krishnamohan, whose name and signature were on the order, was no longer a member of the committee when it was signed. The Tribunal found that this left the order unsustainable in law, and it refused MCX’s request to send the matter back for reconsideration. It also criticised the way the money was recovered, saying the conduct of a first line regulator such as the exchange:
“cannot be countenanced.”
The impugned order was set aside, the appeal allowed, and the debited amount is to be refunded or reversed immediately. Costs of Rs 1 lakh against the exchange appear in the operative portion of the order, although a later paragraph of the order records “No costs”.
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From a position limit to a debit
The penalty came from an order of September 28, 2026, which the MCX Member Committee passed for a client-level open position violation. According to the exchange, a client of Ventura had gone past the 2 per cent client-level open position limit in natural gas options and reached 27 per cent.
On October 14, 2026, MCX debited Rs 1,76,56,723.50 from the broker’s account, being the penalty together with GST. That debit took Ventura to the Tribunal.
The broker’s case and the exchange’s reply
Advocate Rushin Kapadia, for Ventura, argued that S.V. Krishnamohan, whose signature appeared on the order, had ceased to be a committee member on March 20, 2026, and could not have taken part in an order passed six months later. The broker also said it received no alert about the breach, and pointed to a SEBI circular dated September 9, 2026 that caps the maximum penalty for such a violation at Rs 2 lakh, a point the exchange did not dispute.
Advocate Anubhav Ghosh, for MCX, submitted that Mr. Krishnamohan’s name and signature had gone in by a bona fide error, and asked the Tribunal to accept that explanation and remit the matter to the committee.
What the order signals
A penalty from an exchange committee has to be passed by the persons who make up the committee on the date of the order, and a clerical explanation will not cure the defect. The Tribunal was also unwilling to return the matter to the same body once the money had already been recovered from the member.
Case Title: Ventura Securities Limited v. Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited [Appeal No. 363 of 2026 with MA Nos. 1073 and 1079 of 2026]
Bench: Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar (Presiding Officer), Meera Swarup and Dr. Dheeraj Bhatnagar (Technical Members), Securities Appellate Tribunal, Mumbai
Date of Order: October 26, 2026
Appearances: Advocates Rushin Kapadia, Sumit Agrawal, Kavish Garach and Saumya Singh Thakur for Ventura Securities; Advocates Anubhav Ghosh, Vivek Shah and Paras Taneja for MCX