Hearts will not be punished by the Scottish Premier League after the case against them was dismissed.

The club had been charged after failing to pay players' January wages on time, despite a formal warning from the SPL that they had to do so.

The SPL has now accepted that wages were processed before the deadline but were not received by players until the following day and has decided that Hearts acted in good faith.

The SPL opened proceedings against the club after they failed to pay 14 of their first team players as agreed on January 16.

Hearts processed wages on that date, but the money was not received on time.

As such, the league opened disciplinary proceedings for a breach of rule A3.1, which states: "In all matters and transactions relating to the League and Company each Club shall behave towards each other Club and the Company with the utmost good faith."

In a statement, the SPL said:

"The Scottish Premier League today announced that the charge against Heart of Midlothian FC for an alleged breach of SPL Rule A3.1 has been dismissed.

"An SPL Board sub-committee determined that for the Club to have complied with the order of 4th January, it had to have the players’ wages in the players’ bank accounts and available for their use by not later than midnight on 16th January.  In fact the wages did not reach the players’ bank accounts until the morning of 17th January.

"However, the SPL Board sub-committee found that the Club’s directors believed that, by irrevocably instructing their bank on 16th January, that was sufficient to make payment and comply with the order.

"Because the Club’s directors believed that they were complying with the order, Heart of Midlothian were acting in good faith.

"Accordingly the charge against the Club was dismissed."