Long court battle awaits Jignesh Shah, Financial Technologies and team

The Forward Market Commission (FMC) order declaring Jignesh Shah, Joseph Massey (MD of MCX-SX), Shreekant Javalegar (CEO - MCX) and the company Financial Technologies unfit to run an exchange hasn't come as a surprise to the market.

It was expected following the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) fiasco with the exchange owing Rs 5,500 crore to around 13,000 investors that regulators would take such stringent action against the promoters of the exchange.

In fact Jignesh Shah, the founder of the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), saw it coming and before it could have put him on the wrong footing he on its own on  November 1, 2013 resigned from the board of MCX. Before that he even stepped down from the stock exchange MCX-SX.

Shah may be down but he's certainly not out. He saw it coming so he stepped aside. The decision taken was against the advice of his lawyers who had told Shah and his team to continue on the board of MCX. The lawyers were confident they could have challenged the FMC in court if the regulator had gone against the company (FT) and Shah in the 'fit and proper' case.

The company officials have kept mum on the FMC order.

The order is crucial because the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had given MCX-SX a year's extension only on the condition that no other regulator should find anything adverse.

Sources close to Shah have told that he is tired of the entire NSEL episode and does not want to carry on his exchange business anymore in India. According to market grapevine, it is said that once the NSEL payment settlement is done, he wants to shift his base to Singapore and run the overseas exchanges.

It would be still time even if he wants to move out of India as the NSEL fiasco is not going to end anytime soon. Earlier this month, Jignesh Shah's properties, including his Juhu bungalow, were attached by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police.

Even if he wants to quit, he is not going down easily and that too with a tainted name. He will surely knock the doors of the court to clear his name. In short, a long court battle awaits Shah and his team.