- Delhi High Court dismissed petition challenging IFCI's NSE share sale due to suppressed facts
- Petitioner alleged undervaluation causing Rs 12,121 crore notional loss to IFCI and public funds
- Court found petitioner hid prior similar case in Bombay High Court, violating PIL disclosure rules
The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition challenging the sale of shares in the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) by the Industrial Finance Corporation of India Ltd (IFCI), refusing to examine allegations of undervaluation and financial loss because the petitioner had suppressed details of an earlier case filed before the Bombay High Court.
The judgment comes as NSE prepares for a potential public listing, with the petition having sought, among other reliefs, a restraint on certain funds participating in the proposed Offer for Sale.
The petition was filed by Parinay Sharma, who alleged that IFCI, a founding shareholder of NSE, sold 11.25 lakh NSE shares during 2015-16 to DVI Fund (Mauritius) Ltd, Soach Global Opportunities Fund and two other transferees for an aggregate Rs. 440.93 crore.
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Sharma alleged that the transaction undervalued NSE. According to the petition, the sale implied an overall NSE valuation of around Rs. 17,550 crore, compared with a valuation of Rs.17,995 crore in a comparable transaction in June 2013. The petitioner argued that NSE's revenues and operating margins had improved materially between the two transactions.
The petition further claimed that, based on NSE's current unlisted-market valuation of around Rs. 5 lakh crore, the earlier sale resulted in a notional loss of about Rs. 12,121 crore to IFCI and, consequently, the public exchequer.
The petitioner sought investigations by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the transactions, including directions to the investment funds to disclose their ultimate beneficial owners and the source of funds used to acquire the NSE shares. He also sought to prevent the concerned funds from participating in NSE's proposed IPO/OFS.
The court, however, did not adjudicate any of these allegations.
NSE opposed the petition on the ground that it amounted to an abuse of the judicial process. It pointed out that Sharma had already filed a substantially similar petition before the Bombay High Court in May 2026, seeking overlapping reliefs.
The Delhi High Court found that Sharma had nevertheless stated on oath in the Delhi petition that he had not previously filed proceedings seeking similar reliefs. The court held that this amounted to suppression of material facts and violated the Delhi High Court's Public Interest Litigation Rules, which require disclosure of earlier PIL proceedings.
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The bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia consequently dismissed the petition without entering into the merits of the allegations surrounding IFCI's NSE share sale.
The court also imposed exemplary costs of Rs. 5 lakh on Sharma, directing that the amount be paid to the Delhi High Court Bar Clerks' Association within two weeks.
The ruling therefore does not constitute a judicial finding on the allegations of undervaluation or the claimed Rs. 12,121 crore loss. The court's decision was based on the petitioner's conduct in pursuing parallel proceedings and withholding the earlier litigation from the Delhi High Court.
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