The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked markets regulator SEBI to complete its probe into allegations against the Adani Group by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research in the next three months. Further, the court said that there is no ground currently to transfer the case to the CBI.
The judgment further said that the government and the SEBI will look into infractions of the law, if any, by Hindenburg on short-selling and actions will be taken in accordance with the law. “SEBI has completed investigation in 20 out of 22 matters. Taking into account the assurance of the Solicitor General, we direct the SEBI to complete the investigation in the other two cases within 3 months,” the bench said.
Following the verdict, Gautam Adanit took to social media platform X and said “Truth has prevailed. Satyameva Jayate. I am grateful to those who stood by us. Our humble contribution to India’s growth story will continue.”
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra delivered the judgment.
The CJI held that there is no valid ground raised to direct the SEBI to revoke its amendments on Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) and Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) regulations.
A report by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in August had alleged that business partners of the Adani family made large investments in its shares through ‘opaque’ Mauritius funds. Following this, the group lost nearly Rs 35,200 crore in market capitalisation. The court held that OCCRP’s report cannot be taken into account to doubt SEBI’s investigation into allegations.
“The reliance on the OCCRP report is rejected and reliance on a third party organisation report without any verification cannot be relied upon as proof. Reliance on newspaper reports and third-party organisations to question the statutory regulator does not inspire confidence. They can be treated as inputs but not conclusive evidence to doubt the SEBI probe,” the CJI read.
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Adani in 2023
It was retribution for Adani when the SC on November 24 reserved its verdict in the case and said it would not take media reports on the conglomerate as the “gospel truth”. While reserving the verdict, the SC 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”. Moreover, according to a report from Bloomberg News, the US government reportedly reviewed the accusations made by Hindenburg against the Adani Group and deemed them insignificant. Subsequently, the government proceeded to approve a $553 million loan for the conglomerate’s Sri Lanka port terminal project.
Following this, listed Adani entities rallied, adding over $23 billion to Adani’s market value, with three companies hitting the upper circuit.
2023 was a topsy-turvy year for Adani which started with Hindenburg Research alleging multiple charges including that of corporate misgovernance, followed by a stock market rout. Hindenburg wasn’t the only outlet that alleged charges, with OCCRP doing the same in August.
Adani has refuted any and all claims of any misdoings.
Following multiple allegations and a stock market rout, the SC had asked markets regulator SEBI to set up a panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice AM Sapre to study certain allegations.
