Fed-up MCX-SX takes SEBI to court over delayed permission

After having put out an advertisement last Friday blasting the Securities and Exchange Board of India's tardiness with regard to the application by the MCX Stock Exchange to be recognised as a stock exchange, MCX-SX has now taken the unprecedented step of filing a writ petition in the Bombay high court against the market regulator.

The petition will come up for hearing on 28 July.

A copy of the petition was served to SEBI at its Bandra Kurla office on Tuesday. SEBI officials were unavailable for comment. A MCX-SX spokesperson did not respond to queries.

On 15 April, MCX-SX had filed an application with SEBI saying it had complied with the MIMPS regulation which requires the promoters of a stock exchange to bring down the promoters' is stake to nearly 10 per cent and that has been done by MCX-SX through the scheme of capital reduction and arrangement which was approved by the Bombay high court.

As per that requirement, MCX-SX and co-promoter Financial Technologies India Ltd have brought down this stake to 5 per cent each, and in return MCX-SX has also issued 119.66 crore warrants. This was in lieu of the cancelled shares that came about as part of the scheme of arrangement.

According to CNBC-TV18, sources say that SEBI has been served a copy of the MCX-SX writ petition and it has confirmed that they have received it. SEBI is not likely to respond before they appear before the court.