New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing on several petitions on the Adani-Hindenburg dispute and asked the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to circulate its reply, in which the capital markets regulator has given its views on it. Recommendations made by the expert committee appointed by the apex court.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for SEBI, told the top court that he had on Monday filed his “constructive response” to the suggestions made by the expert committee in its report filed in the court.
“What’s the status of the investigation?” a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and Justice Manoj Mishra asked.
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Mehta said the top court had in May given Sebi time till August 14 to complete the probe into allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group and the investigation in the matter was on.
“The expert committee has made some recommendations. We have filed our reply. It has nothing to do with the allegations,” he said.
The bench said it has not received SEBI’s reply and it would be appropriate to circulate it along with other papers related to the matter.
It added that the matter will be taken up for hearing soon after the completion of hearing on some other petitions listed before the constitution bench, which is scheduled to begin hearing from Wednesday.
Sebi, in its application filed in the apex court on Monday, had said that the change in its 2019 rule has not made it difficult to identify the beneficiaries of offshore funds, and action will be taken if any violation is found or established.
The market regulator said it has consistently tightened rules relating to beneficial ownership and related-party transactions – key aspects in the Adani Group’s allegation of manipulating its stock price.
A Supreme Court-appointed expert committee in May said in an interim report that it did not see “any clear pattern of manipulation” in billionaire Gautam Adani’s companies and there was no regulatory failure.
However, it cited several amendments made by SEBI between 2014-2019, which hampered the regulator’s ability to investigate, and its probe into alleged violations in money flows from offshore entities “came up empty”.
On May 17, the apex court had directed that copies of the report submitted before it by the apex court-appointed Justice (Retd) AM Sapre expert committee be made available to the parties to assist them in further deliberations in the matter.
Shares of the Adani Group had declined after Hindenburg Research made several allegations against the business conglomerate, including fraudulent transactions and share-price manipulation.
The Adani Group dismissed the allegations as false and said it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.