In Brief
NSEL, a commodity spot exchange, challenged property attachment notifications under Maharashtra's depositor protection law. The Supreme Court held NSEL qualifies as a 'financial establishment' under the Act because it accepts 'deposits'—both the mandatory security contributions (SGF) and commodities held in warehouses—even though it presented itself as merely a trading platform. The statute's definition of deposit is broad, covering money or commodities returned later in any form, with or without interest. NSEL failed to return amounts owed during a settlement crisis affecting 13,000 traders. The Court upheld the validity of property attachments against the respondent, NSEL's majority shareholder, and reaffirmed the constitutionality of the depositor protection statute.
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