BUSINESS

Adani-Hindenburg issue: Supreme Court turns down plea to gag media

Source: Business Today Feb-24-2023 3 min read

The Hindenburg Research, a US-based short seller, has accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and fraud through a wave of shell firms. The report, published on January 24, has caused massive mayhem in Adani stocks as some of the companies have lost nearly 80 per cent in market capitalisation.

The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday rejected a plea requesting to gag the media from reporting on the Adani Group-Hindenburg issue. Turning down the plea, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, "We are not going to issue any injunction to the media."

The plea was filed by advocate ML Sharma during the mentioned hour who said new developments occur every day. Responding to this, the CJI said the apex court will pass the order on the case and will do what it has to do.

Following the report, a batch of pleas was filed in the top court seeking a direction to Sebi to probe the charges against the Adani Group.

The SC on February 10 said the interests of Indian investors needed to be protected against market volatility in the backdrop of the Adani stock rout. It asked the Centre to consider setting up a panel of domain experts headed by a former judge to look into strengthening the regulatory mechanism.

The Centre accepted the suggestion and submitted the names of the members of the proposed panel. However, the top court refused to accept the Centre’s suggestion in a sealed cover. The SC said will select the experts and maintain full transparency. "We will not accept the sealed cover suggestion by you because we want to maintain full transparency," the bench said.

(With inputs from PTI)