New Delhi, Jan 3 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to transfer the Adani-Hidenburg case from SEBI to SIT saying that the power of the Apex court to enter the regulatory framework of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is ‘limited’.
So, the SEBI should be allowed to complete its probe, the Top court said.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Justice J.B.Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Mishra said there is no ground to transfer the probe from SEBI to SIT or to order SEBI to revoke its regulations.
SEBI has completed its investigation in 20 out of 22 cases, the Court said.
‘The power to transfer investigation must be exercised in exceptional circumstances. Such powers cannot be exercised in the absence of cogent justifications, CJI Chandrachud said.
The Court directed the Government of India and the SEBI to look into whether there is any infraction of law in the Hindenburg report on short selling and, if so, take action by law.
The CJI accused the petitioners of relying on newspaper reports and third-party organizations to question the statutory regulator.
‘This does not inspire confidence. They can be treated as inputs but not conclusive evidence to doubt the SEBI probe,’ Justice Chandrachud said.
The CJI said, before concluding, I should say public interest jurisprudence should not be misused. It was developed to provide access to ordinary citizens…petitions that lack adequate research and rely on unsubstantiated reports cannot be accepted.
The Supreme Court verdict was on a batch of petitions seeking examination of allegations of fraud made against the Adani Group of companies in the Hindenburg Research report.
The pleas claimed the allegations that the Adani Group, considered close to the Modi government, inflated its share prices, and, after the report of the short seller Hindenburg Research, which had accused Adani Group of brazen stock manipulation, the share value of various group entities fell sharply.
