The Supreme Court is likely to take up the Adani-Hindenburg case on Friday, November 24. A bench led by the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud is likely to hear the case.
Earlier this week, a plea was filed in the apex court seeking contempt proceedings against the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for not completing its inquiry in the Adani-Hindenburg matter within the given timeframe.
PIL petitioner Vishal Tiwari in his plea said that despite the deadline given to the SEBI it has failed to comply with the direction of the court and has not submitted the final conclusion/report as directed by the court.
“To initiated contempt proceedings against Sebi for the violation of timeline framed by this Court in the order dated 17-5-2023 in Writ Petition civil 162/2023 and other connected matters for completing the investigation and submit its report,” the fresh application filed by petitioner Vishal Tiwari.
It is to be noted that the top court had granted an extension till August 14 to Sebi to submit its report. On July 11, the SC asked the Sebi about the status of its ongoing investigation into the allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group.
Later, the capital markets regulator filed a status report on the Adani-Hindenburg probe and said it was awaiting information from tax havens.
The Sebi, in its report, had said that it has completed the probe in all but two allegations against the Adani group and is still awaiting information from five tax havens on actual owners behind foreign investors investing in the conglomerate.
Earlier this month, the SC said the apex court registry would look into the issue of listing for hearing PILs related to allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group.
On its part Sebi has noted the challenges in establishing the economic interest of shareholders linked to certain foreign portfolio investors in Adani companies, located in tax havens. The regulator said it is still working on gathering details from five overseas jurisdictions.
In October it was reported that Sebi had approached the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) for "key documents." OCCRP had mentioned about these documents in a report on the Ahmedabad-based conglomerate. However, OCCRP declined to provide the documents to Sebi.
The OCCRP, supported by the United States Department of State and George Soros, is a network of investigative reporters.
OCCRP in its report in August, which was based on internal emails and files from tax havens, stated that investors used Adani Hindenburg offshore structures to trade Adani shares, following the instructions of a senior member of the Adani family. These allegations surfaced after a January report by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research, which triggered a decline in the group's shares.
Shares of Adani Enterprises Ltd were trading at Rs 2169.00, down by 0.24 per cent.
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