Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Monday agreed to look into concerns raised by advocate Prashant Bhushan about a Supreme Court case pertaining to allegations of stock manipulation by the Adani Group being repeatedly deferred, Live Law reported.
Bhushan, appearing for petitioners seeking an investigation into the allegations, informed the top court that the case related to alleged sotck manipulation had been listed on August 29, but the hearing has been repeatedly postponed.
The chief justice said that he would direct the court registry to look into his concerns. The court asked all parties in the case to file their final submissions by Wednesday, Business Today reported.
In January, American firm Hindenburg Research in a report alleged that billionaire Gautam Adani’s group was pulling off the “largest con in corporate history”. The report claimed that the conglomerate has been involved in accounting fraud, improper use of tax havens and money-laundering.
The Adani Group rejected these allegations but the report had still pummelled the stocks of the conglomerate’s listed companies.
Subsequently, a batch of petitions were filed in the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored investigation into the allegations.
In March, the Supreme Court asked the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the securities market regulator, to conduct an inquiry into the matter. The top court had first asked the regulator to submit its report on the issue by May 2. But the court granted the regulator extensions to file the report after the latter cited challenges in examining complex transactions involving the conglomerate’s listed, unlisted and offshore entities.
On August 14, the regulator sought 15 more days from the Supreme Court to finish its investigation.
The court had also constituted a six-member expert committee in March to review regulatory mechanisms in the light of the Adani-Hindenburg row.
However, in September, one of the petitioners filed a new affidavit in the top court raising concerns about the neutrality of three of the six members of the expert committee. The three members “fail to inspire confidence among the people of the country” owing to their background and relations with Adani, alleged the petitioner, activist Anamika Jaiswal.
Also read: SEBI knew about allegations against Adani Group since 2014, letter shows
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