A view of the Supreme Court of India. SC adjourned to Tuesday the listening to on a plea of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) searching for an extension of six months to full a probe into allegations of inventory worth manipulation by the Adani group.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Supreme Court adjourned to Tuesday the listening to on a plea of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) searching for an extension of six months to full a probe into allegations of inventory worth manipulation by the Adani group.
The listening to on the market regulator’s plea and PILs couldn’t happen on Monday due to paucity of time and on account of scheduled listening to of sure issues earlier than a particular bench at 3 pm.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud and justices P. S. Narasimha and J. B. Pardiwala on May 12 had stated it might take into account granting three extra months to SEBI for concluding its probe into the allegations of inventory worth manipulation and lapses in regulatory disclosure.
In the in the meantime, SEBI filed a rejoinder affidavit giving extra causes for searching for extra time to probe the problem.
“The application for extension of time filed by SEBI is meant to ensure carriage of justice keeping in mind the interest of investors and the securities market since any incorrect or premature conclusion of the case arrived at without full facts material on record would not serve the ends of justice and hence would be legally untenable,” it said.
The market regulator has referred to complexities of transactions referred to in the Hindenburg report to justify its plea for extension of time to conclude the probe.
“In respect of the investigation/examination relating to 12 transactions referred to within the Hindenburg Report, prima facie it’s famous that these transactions are extremely complicated and have many sub-transactions throughout quite a few jurisdictions and a rigorous investigation of these transactions would require collation of knowledge/info from varied sources together with financial institution statements from a number of home in addition to worldwide banks, monetary statements of onshore and offshore entities concerned within the transactions and contracts and agreements, if any, entered between the entities together with different supporting paperwork,” SEBI said in its plea.
“Thereafter, evaluation would have to be performed on the paperwork obtained from varied sources earlier than conclusive findings could be arrived at,” it said.
The Supreme Court had on March 2 asked SEBI to probe within two months the allegations against the Adani group and also set up a panel to look at providing protection to Indian investors after a damning report by US short-seller Hindenburg wiped out more than USD 140 billion of the Indian conglomerate’s market value.
It had also ordered setting up of a six-member committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice A M Sapre to investigate the issue.
The scope and ambit of the Sapre panel is to provide an overall assessment of the situation, including the relevant causal factors which have led to volatility in the securities market in the recent past.
The panel was asked to suggest measures to “(i) strengthen the statutory and/or regulatory framework, and (ii) safe compliance with the present framework for the safety of buyers”, the Court stated.
Till now, 4 PILs have been filed within the Supreme Court on the problem, together with by attorneys M L Sharma and Vishal Tiwari and Congress chief Jaya Thakur.
Adani Group shares had taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, together with these about fraudulent transactions and share-price manipulation, in opposition to the enterprise conglomerate.
The Adani Group dismissed the costs as lies, saying it complies with all legal guidelines and disclosure necessities.
