Adani-Hindenburg probe: Supreme Court order expected today on basis of panel report

A Supreme Court bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud is expected to give a final order on the matter of allegations of US-based short seller Hindenburg against the Adani Group. 

The court last heard the case on Friday. The court had constituted a special panel of six members on March 2 to look into the Hindenburg allegations. The panel was headed by former Supreme Court judge AM Sapre. The other members of the expert committee are former SBI chairman OP Bhatt, Justice JP Devadhar (retired), veteran banker KV Kamath, Infosys co-founder Nadan Nilekani and advocate Somasekhar Sundaresan, an expert on Securities law. 

During the course of the hearing, Justice Chandrachud said, "We must act responsibly because these matters affect the stability of the market. The report of the committee headed by Justice Sapre has been received in the registry and we can see the report over the weekend...there is some paucity of time. let us list this on Monday. we will pronounce orders on your application seeking time on Monday," the bench said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has claimed that it has been looking into Adani trade and transactions since 2016. SEBI was given two months to probe into the Hindenburg's allegations for any possible regulatory violations. SEBI had appealed for a six-month extension to deepen the probe. The Supreme Court on Friday said that SEBI will be given a time extension of three months and the matter will be heard in August.

New York based short-seller, Hindenburg Research in January, made a series of tweets and released a report with a series of allegations against the Adani group. Some allegations in the report were, the use of offshore entities to move billions of dollars into the listed Adani Group entities without the required disclosure of related party transactions; violations of SEBI rules regarding public float, listing rules and disclosures, 85% over-valuation of the group's listed companies among other allegations. The Adani group had issued a series of statements including a 413-page rebuttal dismissing the report. 

Apart from the former Supreme Court judge AM Sapre the members on board of the special panel were former SBI chairman OP Bhatt, Justice JP Devadhar (retired), veteran banker KV Kamath, Infosys co-founder Nadan Nilekani and advocate Somasekhar Sundaresan, an expert on Securities law. The Supreme Court had given two months to the expert panel to submit their findings. The panel submitted their findings in a sealed envelope on May 8.