Adani probe: Supreme Court sets August 14 deadline for Sebi

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday told Sebi to conclude probe into Hindenburg’s allegations of stock price manipulation by the Gautam Adani-led group companies and resultant meltdown of shares.

A bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra told solicitor general Tushar Mehta that court expected Sebi to complete probe and submit a report “positively by August 14”. Mehta said the probe is being conducted expeditiously at “full speed”.

Appearing for a petitioner, advocate Prashant Bhushan said the Sebi probe will reach nowhere because of the amendments it had carried out to the regulatory norms to dilute them.

“The SC-appointed expert committee says Sebi investigations cannot go anywhere because of the situa-tion they have created by amending the rules. They have amended the rules to remove definition of opaque structure. They have amended the rules relating to related party transactions and beneficial owners. This is to prevent exposing frauds of this nature,” Bhushan alleged.

The CJI said, “Apropos this submission, we would like to go into the background on which these amendments were carried out. Have you dealt with that? Bhushan is arguing that, today Sebi may be prevented from going into the layers of transactions because of the amendments which Sebi has made to the definition of beneficial owners. What are the circumstances that necessitated amendment of those definitions? That is something which we would definitely like to go into. ”

The SG said, “Sebi has explained everything and all facts are on record. The SC may examine them. ”