Final order on NSE-SGX dispute likely to be out by Feb 2019

Justice SJ Vazifdar, the sole Arbitrator in the National Stock Exchange-Singapore Exchange Limited (NSE-SGX) dispute, yesterday recorded that the matter will be finally heard between January 14 and February 2 of next year..In an earlier order passed on June 14, Vazifdar J had asked SGX to abide by the Bombay High Court’s injunction order against the launch of new India derivative products. The injunction order would continue for a period of four weeks from the declaration of final award..At the same time, he extended the agreement of Nifty-licensed products to SGX until the arbitration concludes. The licensing agreement was to end in August 2018; it is now extended till early 2019..In April this year, SGX said that it would migrate all Nifty and Bank Nifty positions of its clients to new contracts that will be settled every month on publicly available information. These new contracts stem from the February 9 decision by the NSE, the BSE, and another bourse to halt providing data to foreign exchanges to prevent trading volumes from moving offshore..As a result, a petition was filed in the Bombay High Court by India Index Services and Products Limited (a subsidiary of NSE), which provides indices and index-related services to NSE, against Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Ltd. and Respondent and Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited..Justice SJ Kathawala of the High Court had passed an order dated May 29, referring the matter to retired Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Vazifdar J as the sole arbitrator to hear the arguments..Senior Advocates Janak Dwarkadas and Venkatesh Dhond along with Advocates Somasekhar Sundaresan and Vivek Menon appeared for NSE, briefed by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas..Senior Advocates Darius Khambata and Shiraz Rustomjee, briefed by Naik and Naik, appeared for SGX..Read order dated June 18: