Adani-Hindenburg Controversy Not over yet, Review Plea Filed against SC Judgment

Challenging the Supreme Court's judgment in the Adani-Hindenburg case, a review petition has been filed in the top court by Anamika Jaiswal, who was one of the petitioners in the case. Jaiswal has argued that there are sufficient reasons, which require review of the impugned order passed by the court on January 3.

New Delhi:A review petition has been filed challenging the Supreme Court's judgment, which gave a thumbs up to the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) probe in the Adani-Hindenburg controversy and declined to transfer the probe to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) or the CBI.

The petitioner, Anamika Jaiswal, who was one of the petitioners in the case, has argued that there are sufficient reasons which require review of the impugned order passed by the Supreme Court on January 3. The plea said the apex court’s judgment has apparent errors and SEBI’s regulatory failures were overlooked. The apex court, in January, had asked SEBI to finish the probe in three months.

The petition claimed in light of certain new material that had been received by the counsel for the petitioner, there were sufficient reasons for a review of the verdict. The plea, filed through advocate Neha Rathi, said SEBI had in its report only updated the court about the status of the 24 investigations it undertook following the allegations whether they were complete or incomplete, but did not disclose any findings or details of action taken. “It cannot be concluded that there has been no regulatory failure unless the findings of the SEBI investigations are publicly reported,” it said.

The SEBI, in its status report, had said that 22 out of 24 investigations were final in nature and two were interim, and the 22 completed reports included two on manipulation of stock prices, 13 on failure to disclose Related Party Transactions (RTPs), five on violation of insider trading regulations and one each on violations of regulations on Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) and Acquisitions & Takeovers.

On January 3, a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had said, “SEBI has completed 22 of the 24 investigations into the allegations levelled against the Adani Group. Noting the assurance given by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on behalf of SEBI, we direct SEBI to complete the two pending investigations expeditiously preferably within three months”.

In January 2023, the US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of fraud and “brazen” stock price manipulation. The Supreme Court intervened and issued directions for a probe to investigate the allegations.

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