Overview
- The Supreme Court, which ruled on Friday, May 29, 2026, partly allowed Reliance Industries’ appeal by setting aside SEBI’s finding of fraud and cancelling the ₹447.27 crore disgorgement order.
- The bench directed that the ₹250 crore Reliance had deposited in the Investors' Protection Fund be returned to the company.
- The court sustained a separate ₹25 crore penalty for breaches of position‑limit disclosure rules and described those breaches as technical regulatory violations rather than fraudulent market manipulation.
- The case record shows Reliance used 12 agent entities to build net short futures positions of about 9.92 crore shares and sold roughly 20.29 crore RPL shares in the cash market, including about 2.25 crore in the last ten minutes on expiry.
- The judgment criticises the SAT’s 2020 majority ruling as an 'egregious error', raises the evidentiary bar for proving fraud under the PFUTP regulations, and may force SEBI to recalibrate how it pursues large‑scale market‑manipulation cases going forward.