The Securities Appeal Court (SAT) has ordered the country’s largest stock exchange to pay a fine of 1 billion rupees ($12.3 million) for failures in its system, lawyers representing NSE told Mumbai.

The lawyers declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

NSE and SEBI officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

In 2019, SEBI issued a series of orders against NSE and its former chief executives, Chitra Ramkrishna and Ravi Narain, alleging that the exchange failed to exercise due diligence in building the network, which allowed high-frequency traders to gain unfair access to certain exchange network servers.

SEBI has ordered NSE to deposit nearly 11 billion rupees, including interest, in investor funds and banned it from raising funds in securities markets, directly or indirectly, for six months.

He also asked Narain and Ramkrishna to return 25% of the salary they received during the period.

The Securities Court of Appeal ruled on Monday that SEBI’s repeal was unfair and that the stock exchange and its former officers had not enriched themselves.

“The demolition related to NSE, Ramkrishna and Narain was canceled because SEBI failed to establish the presence of illegal income,” said a lawyer representing SEBI in court.

In its order, SEBI said it found that the NSE system was flawed and provided preferential access to certain brokers when accessing high-speed algorithmic trading platforms and colocation facilities.

Ramkrishna and Narain’s ban from capital markets has been reduced to the ban it has suffered from, said the lawyer.

Ramkrishna was arrested last March in a roommate case by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

($1 = 81.3525 Indian rupees)