The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed a 30-day lag for sharing and using market data for educational purposes, as the regulator seeks to address confusion caused by its two previous circulars.
In a May 2024 circular, Sebi had barred market infrastructure institutions (MIIs) and intermediaries, including stock exchanges, from sharing price data with a lag of less than one day for educational purposes. In a separate circular in 2025, the regulator said the time lag for using price data for investor education and awareness activities would be three months.
This gap was again highlighted during the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) proceedings in the Avadhut Sathe case. In a December ex parte interim order, Sebi barred Sathe and his institute, Avadhut Sathe Trading Academy (ASTA), from accessing the securities market, and directed the impounding of ₹546.16 crore, alleging Sathe was running unregistered investment advisory and research analyst operations under the cover of stock market education.
As evidence, Sebi presented several instances where Sathe used market data to give stock recommendations. The regulator claimed that the academy had amassed an “astronomical” ₹601.37 crore from over 337,000 investors since 2015.
During the SAT proceeding, the appellants argued that a “regulatory vacuum” caused by the conflicting timelines in the two circulars led to confusion about the mandated time lag for live market data usage.
In its consultation paper released on Tuesday, Sebi said that both circulars can coexist as they serve different purposes. The one-day delay represents the minimum technical buffer that MIIs and intermediaries must observe when sharing price data for educational purposes, while the three-month requirement is a content-based threshold that educators must meet for their material to be considered purely educational.
But stakeholders see them as inconsistent in practice.
Sebi said it has received feedback that a one-day lag is too short and susceptible to misuse, while internal deliberations suggested that a three-month gap makes educational material less effective.
A 30-day lag could strike a balance by keeping content relevant without enabling educators to analyze near-real-time data in a way that resembles stock tips or recommendations, the regulator said in the paper.
“A 30-day lag will help control the data,” said Akshaya Bhansali, managing partner at Mindspright Legal. “Earlier, teaching with three-month-old data did not make sense. But a change in the timeline does not make a difference in the misuse of data. Sebi needs to build a mechanism to tackle data being used in the wrong ways.”
Other safeguards in the January 2026 circular include prohibitions on activities that resemble advisory or research functions, would remain unchanged. Public comments have been invited until 27 January.