Securities Market Code Bill, 2025: New Future or Just Re-Packaging?

The Securities Market Code Bill, 2025 was introduced in the lower house of the parliament on 18th December 2025. This bill aims at unifying and modernizing India’s securities laws. Currently, in India, the laws governing securities law are fragmented, such as the Securities Contract (Regulation) Act, 1956, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992 and Depositories Act, 1996. Whereas the Bill, 2025 seeks to create a single, comprehensive and streamlined framework to replace the existing laws. The three existing laws are built for a different era; they worked together, but as a patchwork. All securities market rules and regulations will be within the ambit of a single code. This ensures that there are no overlaps between the laws regulating the listing of a company, issuance of securities and dematerialisation rules. The code aims to decriminalize the offences from imprisonment to monetary penalties. The primary objective of the SMC Bill, 2025 is to codify the laws and to modernise the laws for the tech-ready market regulation. It aims to recognize and regulate Algo trading, High-Frequency Trading (HFT) or AI-based advisory as SEBI would likely be empowered with statutory powers to regulate digital trading practices with a wide definition of ‘securities’ if the SMC Bill, 2025 is implemented. SEBI will have a new dimension in the near future it has been empowered with adjudicatory powers, executive powers, and legislative powers. However, considering the powers of SEBI under the SMC Bill, 2025, gives rise to various concerns, such as whether it leads to excessive delegation of powers and no separation of powers. Hence, in this paper, the researchers will be analysing the pros and cons of SMC Bill, 2025. Henceforth Securities Market Code Bill, 2025: New Future or Just Re-Packaging?