The Securities and Exchange Board of India has issued a consultation paper inviting public comments on proposed modifications to the regulatory framework governing trading at stock exchanges, including the commodity derivatives segment, as part of its Ease of Doing Business (EODB) initiative. Anchored in the Union Budget 2023–24 announcement, the proposals aim to simplify compliance, remove redundancies, and reduce regulatory costs through a consultative process. This is the second consultation in a series and focuses on revising Chapter 1 (Trading) of the Master Circular for Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations (MSECC) and Chapters 1 and 3 of the Master Circular for Commodity Derivatives (MCCD). Key proposals include merging and consolidating trading-related provisions, separating exchange and clearing corporation responsibilities, discontinuing redundant segments, and rationalising risk management and UPI-based secondary market trading provisions. The revised consolidated circular is intended to replace existing provisions applicable up to August 31, 2025. Public comments are invited until January 30, 2026.
Securities and Exchange Board of India
SEBI- Jan 09, 2026 | Reports : Reports for Public Comments
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CONSULTATION PAPER ON CIRCULAR FOR TRADING AT STOCK EXCHANGES – FOR PUBLIC COMMENTS
Measures for Ease of Doing Business (EODB) for Exchanges – Modifications to Chapter 1: Trading (including for Commodity Derivatives Segment) of Master Circular for Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations (“MSECC”), and Master Circular for Commodity Derivatives (“MCCD”)
1. OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND
1.1 The Hon’ble Finance Minister in the budget announcements for FY 2023-24, inter-alia, made an announcement to simplify, ease and reduce cost of compliance for participants in the financial sector through a consultative process.
1.2 In order to align the process of review of Master Circulars with the budget announcement, SEBI, inter-alia, prior to issuing a circular under the Acts or regulations, generally, undertakes public consultation.
1.3 Therefore, in compliance with the mandate and procedure envisaged in the aforesaid budget announcement, towards facilitating ease of doing business/compliance for stock exchanges, a Consultation Paper on Measures for ease of doing business on Administration of Exchanges (with respect to Chapter 6 of MSECC and Chapter 13, 14, 15 of MCCD) has been put up for public comments on October 08, 2025.
1.4 It was proposed in the said Consultation Paper that the approach to review shall broadly entail the below activities:
1.4.1 Chapter-wise review of Master Circular for Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations dated December 30, 2024;
1.4.2 Entity-wise review of Master Circular, in terms of having a Master Circular for Exchanges and separate Master Circular for Clearing Corporations;
1.4.3 Merger of Master Circulars into a single set of directions for Stock Exchanges and Commodity Derivatives exchanges.
1.5 Accordingly, this Consultation Paper is second in the series of Consultation Papers to be issued in this regard. This Consultation Paper is prepared proposing changes in extant norms and devising a single consolidated circular on Chapter 1 (Trading). Accordingly, the objective of this consultation paper is to seek comments/views/suggestions from public on the modifications to:
1.5.1 Chapter 1 (Trading) of Master Circular for Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations (“MSECC”) dated December 30, 2024, and
1.5.2 Chapter 1 (Trading) and Chapter 3 (Daily Price Limits and Position Limits) of Master Circular for Commodity Derivatives Segment (“MCCD”) dated August 04, 2023.
through, inter-alia, simplification of regulatory requirements, removal of redundant provisions, discontinuation of duplication, in order to promote ease of doing business (EODB) and reduce the compliance burden on exchanges.
Accordingly, this consultation paper is for combined guidelines for Stock Exchanges on the aforementioned Chapters and shall replace all the applicable provisions till August 31, 2025 in respect of Stock Exchanges (including Commodity Derivatives exchanges).
2. SUMMARY OF CHANGES SUGGESTED
The current provisions, proposed changes and rationale for the changes are briefly mentioned as under:
3. PUBLIC COMMENTS
3.1 Kindly provide your comments for the below items along with supporting rationale:
3.1.1 Whether provisions covered under Chapter 1 of Master Circular for Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations dated December 30, 2024 and the Chapters 1 and 3 of Master Circular for Commodity Derivatives dated August 04, 2023 be merged?
3.1.2 Whether provisions related to Stock Exchanges and provisions related to Clearing Corporations covered in Chapter 1 of Master Circular dated December 30, 2024, and Chapters 1 and 3 of Master Circular dated August 04, 2023 be separated?
3.1.3 Wherever the above two is proposed, whether any risks or issues are envisaged? Safeguards to protect against possible risks?
3.1.4 Wherever any provisions such as those related to discontinuation of Dedicated Debt Segment, Market Making, etc. which are proposed to be removed, result in any risks for the securities market in general, investors in particular? Safeguards to protect against such risks?
3.1.5 Whether any other circular/communication needs to be incorporated in the revised Chapter on ‘Trading at Stock Exchanges’?
3.1.6 With respect to paragraph 17.2.3 of Chapter 1 of MSECC, whether the differentiation in risk management provisions for call auction pre-open session is required in terms of issue size of IPO?
3.1.7 For the paragraph related to Trading Supported by Blocked Amount through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in Secondary Market, settlement related provisions have been proposed to be moved to the Master Circular on CCs, while retaining provisions related to the general features of the facility, responsibilities of Qualified Stock Brokers (QSBs) and the process of validation and blocking using UPI under the purview of exchanges. In this regard, whether any provisions which have been retained with exchanges should be moved to CCs, and vice-versa, whether any provisions moved to CC should be under the purview of exchanges?
3.1.8 Specific comments on the detailed provisions in this consultation paper. 3.1.9 Any other comments and suggestions.
3.2 Public comments are also invited on the draft circular and draft circular in track change annexed to this consultation paper as Annexure A and Annexure B. The comments/suggestions should be submitted latest by January 30, 2026, through the online web-based form which can be accessed using the following link: https://www.sebi.gov.in/sebiweb/publiccommentv2/PublicCommentAction.do ?do Public Comments=yes
3.3 The instructions to submit comments on the consultation paper are as under:
3.3.1 Before initiating the process, please read the instructions given on top left of the web form as “Instructions”.
3.3.2 Select the consultation paper you want to comment upon from the dropdown under the tab – “Consultation Paper” after entering the requisite information in the form.
3.3.3 All fields in the form are mandatory.
3.3.4 Email ID and phone number cannot be used more than once for providing comments on a particular consultation paper.
3.3.5 If you represent any organization other than the types mentioned under dropdown in “Organization Type”, please select “Others” and mention the type, which suits you best. Similarly, if you do not represent any organization, you may select “Others” and mention “Not Applicable” in the text box. vi. There will be a dropdown of Proposals in the form. Please select the proposals one- by-one and for each of the proposal, please record your level of agreement with the selected proposal. Please note that submission of agreement level is mandatory.
3.3.6 If you want to provide your comments for the selected proposal, please select
3.3.7 “Yes” from the dropdown under “Do you want to comment on the proposal” and use the text boxes provided for the same.
3.3.8 After recording your response to the proposal, click on “Submit” button. System will save your response to the selected proposal and prompt you to record your response for the next proposal. Please follow this procedure for all the proposals given in the dropdown.
3.3.9 If you do not want to react on any proposal, please select that proposal from the dropdown and click on “Skip this proposal” and move to the next proposal.
3.3.10 After recording your response to all the proposals, you may see your draft response to all of proposals by clicking on “Check your response before submitting” just before submitting response to the last proposal in the dropdown. A pdf copy of the response can also be downloaded from the link given in right bottom of the web page.
3.3.11 The final comments shall be submitted only after recording your response on all of the proposals in the consultation paper.
3.4 In case of any technical issue in submitting your comment through the web based public comments form, you may contact the following through email with the subject: “Modifications to Master Circular for Stock Exchanges and Master Circular for Commodity Derivatives Segment on Trading at Stock Exchanges”
a) Shri Lamber Singh, DGM (lambers@sebi.gov.in)
b) Shri Kennedy Rina, AGM (rinak@sebi.gov.in)
c) Shri Pratik Kumar, Manager (pratikk@sebi.gov.in)
Encl.: Annexure A, Annexure B
Issued on: January 09, 2026
