NSE Moves Supreme Court Against Delhi High Court Ruling Declaring It Public Authority Under RTI Act

The National Stock Exchange has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's judgment upholding a 2010 ruling which declared NSE as a 'public authority' under the Right to Information Act.

The High Court on July 1, 2026 had held that the exchange must be regarded as having been established or at least constituted, by an order of the Central Government since a stock exchange cannot function without governmental recognition and SEBI grants such recognition as the Central Government's delegate.

The special leave petition filed on July 21 is yet to be listed before the Supreme Court. 

A Division Bench of Justices C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla had dismissed NSE's appeal against the April 15, 2010 judgment of a Single Judge, which held that the exchange is amenable to the RTI Act.

"The learned Single Judge has held that, in interpreting the expressions “established” and “constituted” in the first part of Section 2(h), the Court has to adopt a purposive, rather than a literal, construction. With the advancement of the law, the principle of purposive construction has replaced the principle of plain meaning as the golden rule for interpreting a statutory instrument. In view of the fact that Section 4(3) requires governmental recognition for a stock exchange to function as such, we agree with the learned Single Judge that the stock exchange has to be regarded as having been “established” or, at the very least, “constituted” by an order issued by the Government.", the court held.

The appeal before the High Court arose from the Single Judge's decision declaring NSE a public authority under the RTI Act. NSE argued that although it was incorporated as a private company on November 27, 1992 and later recognised by SEBI as a stock exchange, it was neither established nor constituted by the Government and therefore fell outside the definition of a public authority under the Act.

Rejecting the contention, the High court agreed with the Single Judge that NSE qualifies as an 'authority' under the first part of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, making it unnecessary to examine whether it is also an institution of self-government.

The Court further held that a stock exchange cannot legally operate without governmental recognition and that the recognition granted by SEBI is deemed to be an order of the Central Government, as the regulator exercises delegated powers under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act.