The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on Wednesday in a batch of petitions seeking probe into allegations of fraud made against Adani Group of companies in the Hindenburg Research report.A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had reserved the verdict in November last year.The case before the Court is tied to allegations that Adani had inflated its share prices. After these allegations (part of a report by short-seller Hindenberg Research) were published, it led to a sharp fall in the share value of various Adani companies, reportedly to the tune of $100 billion.
This led to a batch of petitions being filed before the top court including a plea that alleged that changes to the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act (SEBI Act) had provided a 'shield and an excuse' for the Adani Group's regulatory contraventions and market manipulations to remain undetected.After the petitions came to be filed, the Supreme Court asked SEBI to independently investigate the matter, apart from constituting an expert committee headed by retired Justice AM Sapre to also look into the matter.The expert committee in its report released in May, found no prima facie lapse on the part of the SEBI in the matter.During the hearing of the matter on November 24, 2023, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had contended that media reports were now being "planted" to influence India's actions.
"There is a growing tendency of planting stories outside India to influence decisions within India. One example is the OCCRP report," Mehta had alleged.The Court had also remarked that SEBI cannot be expected to go by what media outlets have reported.
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