SC rejects MMTC appeal against National Spot Exchange settlement scheme

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed state-run trading company MMTC’s appeal challenging the approval granted to National Spot Exchange Ltd’s Rs 1,950 crore scheme to settle the claims of creditors and traders affected by the exchange’s 2013 payment crisis.

A bench led by Justice PS Narasimha dismissed the appeal against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s March 30 judgment that upheld the approval granted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in November last year.

The NCLT cleared the settlement scheme after more than 90% of the creditors approved it in May 2025. The appellate tribunal also rejected MMTC’s appeal, saying that although the company had voted against the scheme, it had not filed objections before the tribunal during the proceedings for its approval. Investigating agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Economic Offences Wing of police, which are investigating an alleged Rs 5,600 crore scam that brought down the commodity spot exchange, had also not challenged the scheme, it noted.


In its appeal before the top court, MMTC, which was a trading member of the now-defunct exchange, termed the settlement scheme as illegal, without jurisdiction, vitiated by suppression and fraud, and liable to be set aside. The scheme was prejudicial to public interest as it compelled “creditors to accept an amount substantially lower than the value of assets already attached and judicially secured, deprives them of future recoveries from defaulters, and seeks to reclassify protected ‘depositors’ under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act as ordinary creditors to dilute statutory safeguards,” the company argued.

The claims arose from systemic failures, regulatory misrepresentations and fraud perpetrated on the NSEL platform, and not from a mere counterparty default, the company told the apex court.

NSEL was alleged to have established a system in collusion with broking companies that bypassed the collection of warehouse receipts or physical commodities for their clients.

According to MMTC, the settlement scheme was designed to secure the release and utilisation of the attached assets of 63 Moons Technologies, the parent company of NSEL. These assets were attached under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 1999, it said, adding that nearly 90% of the settlement corpus was proposed to be sourced from the attached assets, over which the NCLT or NCLAT had no jurisdiction. It also said the ED and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office had opposed the scheme.

While Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee appeared for MMTC, NSEL was represented by senior counsel AM Singhvi and counsel Ankur Saigal.

The appellate tribunal in January also dismissed another similar appeal by LJ Tanna Enterprises. That decision was upheld by the SC in March.