SC to Form Expert Committee to Investigate Adani-Hindenburg Controversy

The Supreme Court (SC) turned down the names proposed by the Union Government and said it will form an expert committee to review the regulatory mechanism regarding the Adani-Hindenburg Case.

After rejecting a number of proposals of names from the union Government a bench led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the court will constitute the committee to ensure “full (public) confidence”.

CJI Chandrachud said, “We want full transparency… if we accept these suggestions, then it will be seen as a government-appointed committee, which we do not want. Leave it to us to decide.”

He further said, “However, we can’t start with a presumption of regulatory failure.”

Hearing a batch of petitions on the Adani Group controversy, the court last week had look round for the views of the Union government and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to protect Indian investors. The government had then informed the court that it was fine with the constitution of a committee while requesting that its remit should not be defined in such a manner that foreign and domestic investors feel there are inadequacies in the regulatory framework.

One of the petitioners, Vishal Sharma, told the court that he wanted “a proper valuation of the shares for loans being given by banks” as well as an audit of the Adani companies. He sought directions from the court to appoint a Supreme Court judge to investigate the contents of the Hindenburg report.

Another petitioner, M.L. Sharma, sought “action against Hindenburg”. He wanted action against Nathan Anderson, the founder of Hindenburg, “for exploiting innocent Investors via short selling under the garb of artificial crashing”. He urged the court to declare short selling an offence of fraud.

Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for another petitioner, sought a special investigation team be set up under the supervision of the Supreme Court to look into the Hindenburg report, flagging the alleged violation of stock market rules by the Adani Group.