New Delhi, July 9 -- The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by former National Stock Exchange (NSE) Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chitra Ramkrishna challenging the constitutional validity of the definitions of "public duty" and "public servant" under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act), holding that the NSE performs functions of public importance and its top executive cannot be divorced from those functions.

A Division Bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja held that the NSE discharges a public duty and that Ramkrishna, as its MD and CEO during the relevant period, cannot be wholly separated from the functions performed by the exchange in which the public at large has a significant i...