Adani-Hindenburg: Supreme Court Junks Petition Seeking Review Of Verdict

The Supreme Court has dismissed a review petition that was filed against its Jan. 3 judgement in the Adani Group-Hindenburg Research case, wherein the court reposed confidence in SEBI's regulatory powers and ruled that petitioners could not provide enough material to transfer the probe to a special investigation team.

A three-judge bench comprising the Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra dismissed the review petitions on May 8. The order copy was made available on July 15.

It was contended through the review plea that there were mistakes and errors apparent in the top court’s Jan. 3 verdict. It was also stated that the petitioner had uncovered certain new material in the case. "There are sufficient reasons that require review of the impugned order," the plea said.

The top court, however, found ‘no error’ in its verdict and accordingly dismissed the petition. 

In January last year, Hindenburg Research, a short-selling firm, put out a report accusing the power-to-edible oil conglomerate of engaging in stock price manipulation, artificial inflation of its asset value, and violations of various securities regulations.

The report’s fallout led to the Adani Group losing more than $100 billion in market value. This prompted a string of PILs to be filed before the Supreme Court, expressing a need for a stronger regulatory framework to protect investors.

Thereafter, two simultaneous probes—one by the Securities and Exchange Board of India and another by a top court-appointed expert committee—were launched to investigate the matter.

The expert committee submitted its report before the top court in May last year, wherein it said that a conclusion with regards to a regulatory failure by SEBI could not be ascertained at the time.

And since the case involved deciphering complex information in tandem with a lot of overseas regulators, the market regulator required more time to complete its probe into the matter, which the court gave. It is important to note that SEBI’s last status report indicated that it had completed its investigation on 22 out of the 24 identified issues. 

While delivering its verdict, the court said that SEBI has prima facie conducted a comprehensive investigation and no such case has been made out where a transfer of investigation would be necessitated.

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