SC will pronounce judgement on January 3

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will pronounce its judgement on a batch of petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation into the allegations made by US-based firm Hindenburg Research against the Adani group of companies regarding violations of the stock market.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra reserved its verdict on the order on various aspects related to the Hindenburg report in November 2023.

The case is related to the allegations (part of a report by short-seller Hindenberg Research) that Adani had inflated its share prices. After these allegations were published, it led to a sharp fall in the share value of various Adani companies, reportedly to the tune of $100 billion.

The Adani Group has dismissed the charges as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.

Various petitions were filed alleging that changes to the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act (SEBI Act) had provided a shield and an excuse for the Adani Group’s regulatory contraventions and market manipulations to remain undetected.

The apex court then asked SEBI to independently probe the matter and also constituted an expert committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice AM Sapre to look into the matter.

In May last year, the expert committee in its report had found no prima facie lapse on the part of the SEBI in the matter.

While reserving the verdict, the Supreme Court had said it has no reason to “discredit” SEBI, which probed allegations against the Adani group, as there was no material before it to doubt what the market regulator has done and the court does not have to treat what was set out in the Hindenburg report as a “true state of affairs”.

It had observed that it cannot ask a statutory regulator to take as a “gospel truth” something which was published in the media.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for one of the petitioners, had told the apex court that there were many factual revelations in the Hindenburg report.

He said it was for the top court to see whether the investigation done by the SEBI was credible or not and whether some other independent organisation or an SIT needed to be formed to investigate it.

First Published: Jan 02 2024 | 10:04 PM IST