3 NSE officials banned by Sebi rejoin office post-SAT relief

Three senior officials of the NSE resumed work at the same position Tuesday, after being getting an interim relief from the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) after being barred by the regulator Sebi in the co-location case last week. The Sebi had barred the three NSE officials from holding any office in any stock exchange for colluding with brokerages which were found guilty of gaining an unfair advantage over others by placing their servers in close proximity the main servers of the exchange.

"The three have resumed work in the same positions as they were holding earlier," a source in the know of the development said. The three are Ravi Varanasi, head of business development; Nagendra Kumar SRVS, head of the membership department; and Deviprasad Singh, head of colocation support.

Meanwhile, the SAT has given a similar relief to Suprabhat Lala, whose conduct was found wanting on governance and conflict of interest front in the case and was barred. He was barred for two years by Sebi and had approached the tribunal Monday, which granted him the relief on Tuesday.

Lala is likely to rejoin work on Wednesday. Like in the case of the first three employees, the SAT has kept the matter for hearing on July 22.

Sebi had barred Varanasi, Kumar and Singh from holding any position with any stock exchange, clearing corporation, depository and any intermediary registered with it for two years, while Varanasi was prevented from holding any position with a listed company for three years. Their names featured in the Sebi order last week, which levied the biggest ever penalty on officials starting with former managing directors Chitra Ramakrishnan and Ravi Narain for lapses in the co-location case.

The Sebi also slapped over Rs 1,100 crore of penalty on the exchange apart from asking the former MDs to part with 25 per cent of their salaries during their tenure at the helm of the nation's largest equity bourse.

(With inputs from agencies.)