Supreme Court Reprimands Petitioner For Mixing Up Past SEBI Probes With Hindenburg Case

The Supreme Court has reprimanded the petitioner in the Hindenburg case for mixing up an investigation by the capital markets regulator SEBI in 2016 and 2020 with the current case.

In the court hearing today, the petitioner demanded that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) should tell the outcome of its 2016 and 2020 probe.

SEBI's lawyer Tushar Mehta raised a strong objection to the petitioner's demand since none of the 51 Indian firms probed by the SEBI earlier were linked to the Adani Group.

"You can't just pick up anything from 2016 and link it to the Hindenburg report. The 2016 case was a completely different one and has nothing to do with the Hindenburg case. In 2016, none of the 51 Indian companies that were investigated by SEBI were related to the Adani Group," Mr Mehta told the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also agreed to the objection by Mr Mehta.

Replying to the demand by Prashant Bhushan, the petitioner's lawyer, to see the reports of the SEBI investigations in 2016 and 2020, Chief Justice Chandrachud said, "We are only on the Hindenburg case. The 2016 probe pertains to the issuance of global depository receipts (GDR), while the 2020 probe pertains to the violation of the minimum public shareholding (MPS) rule."

The Supreme Court has also given three more months to SEBI to complete its probe in the Hindenburg case. The SEBI had asked for six more months, which the Supreme Court declined today.

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud told the SEBI to submit a status report of its investigation by August 14, after which the court will decide whether to give the regulator more time, as requested by Mr Mehta in the hearing today.

On March 2, the Supreme Court directed SEBI to investigate within two months any violations before and after the Hindenburg report on the Adani Group. On April 29, three days before SEBI's deadline, the regulator asked for six more months. SEBI's lawyer said the matter involves cross-border jurisdictions, which will take time to process.

Chief Justice Chandrachud said the report by a panel of Supreme Court-appointed group of domain experts to look into India's regulatory mechanism to protect investors, which has already submitted its report, will continue to assist the court and share the report with the parties involved in this matter and their lawyers.

The next hearing on the report of the Supreme Court-appointed experts' committee is on July 11.

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