Bombay High Court stays order imposing Rs 50 lakh fine on NSE

The Bombay High Court on Monday stayed its single judge order against the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for two weeks in a defamation case that the bourse had filed against a financial news website.

A division bench comprising justices VM Kanade and Shalini Joshi stayed the monetary penalty of Rs 50 lakh imposed recently by justice Gautam Patel.

The court had dismissed NSE's case and ordered the exchange to pay Rs 1.5 lakh each to two journalists, and imposed a penalty of Rs 47 lakh on NSE to be paid in the form of a donation to Masina Hospital and Tata Memorial Hospital. The stock exchange had filed an appeal challenging the order.

On July 8, the website had allegedly printed a defamatory article levelling several allegations about data leak. NSE had filed a defamation suit claiming damages of Rs 100 crore in the Bombay high court. This was rejected by the high court and directed the bourse to pay a compensation to the journalist