Supreme Court Dismisses NSEL Plea For Joint Trial In Two CBI Cases Over 2013 Payment Crisis

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed National Spot Exchange Ltd.'s (NSEL) challenge to the Bombay High Court's March 27, 2026 judgment.

The Bombay High Court had refused to direct a joint trial in two CBI cases arising from the alleged 2013 NSEL payment crisis.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana held that, "No case to interfere with the impugned order passed by the High Court is made out. The Special Leave Petition is, accordingly, dismissed."

The dispute concerns two CBI special cases pending before a Mumbai Special Court. According to NSEL, both cases arise from transactions conducted on the NSEL platform between 2007 and 2013. The transactions allegedly involved fraudulent T+2 and T+25 paired contracts without actual delivery of commodities. One case relates to an alleged loss of about ₹120.75 crore to PEC Ltd.

The other concerns an alleged loss of about ₹222.49 crore to MMTC Ltd. NSEL argued that the matters involve 18 common accused, 25 common witnesses, and 71 common documents. It contended that the cases should therefore be tried together.

The CBI opposed the plea. It is submitted that the cases involve different public sector undertakings, separate conspiracies, distinct transactions and different sets of accused persons. It argued that separate trials were warranted and that a joint trial would lead to confusion, delay and prejudice.

Rejecting NSEL's revision plea, the Bombay High Court held that the two prosecutions did not arise from the same transaction. It held that the cases did not satisfy the requirements for a joint trial under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Dismissing the revision application, the High Court ruled, "the cases do not satisfy legal requirement for a joint trial. On contrary, a joint trial would lead to confusion in evidence, unnecessary delay in proceedings and possible prejudice to the parties."

For Petitioner: Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Siddhartha Dave, Vikas Pahwa, Sr. Advocates, Advocates Ranjan Kumar Pandey, AOR, Sandeep Bisht, Manish Kumar, Sahil Nindawat