Hindenburg report on Adani: Supreme Court receives expert committee report; inclined to grant SEBI 3 more months to finish probe

The Supreme Court on Friday said that it is inclined to grant only three more months to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to complete its probe into the controversy surrounding the Hindenburg Research report on the Adani Group of companies and allegations against the Conglomerate [Vishal Tiwari vs Union of India and ors]..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala said that it cannot grant six months extension as demanded by SEBI.The bench was hearing an application by SEBI seeking an extension of six months to submit its probe report."We cannot grant 6 months now. There needs to be some alacrity in the work. Put together a team. We can list the case in August mid and have the report then.. 6 months cannot be given as a minimum time. SEBI cannot take indefinitely long period and we will give them 3 months," the Court said.It then stated that it will pronounce its order on SEBI's application for extension of time on May 15, Monday.Pertinently, the bench also said that it has received the probe report submitted by the court-appointed expert committee headed by retired apex court judge, Justice AM Sapre."The report of the committee headed by Justice Sapre has been received in the registry and we can see the report over the weekend.. let us list this on Monday. We will pronounce orders on your application seeking time on Monday," the bench said.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for SEBI..In an order passed on March 2, the Supreme Court had allowed SEBI to continue with its probe. The probe was to be completed by May 2.This probe was in addition to the probe ordered by the top court by the expert committee headed by Justice Sapre.SEBI in its filed application filed last month said that it would need another six months to complete the probe.SEBI also said that it has apprised the expert committee of the status, steps taken and interim findings in respect of the examinations and investigations carried out by it.In its application, the market regulator submitted that the 12 suspicious transactions cited in the Hindenburg report would need a rigorous probe of at least 15 months since those transactions are complex and have many sub-transactions.Further, the investigation would also require obtaining bank statements from multiple domestic as well as international banks and as the bank statements would also be for the transactions undertaken more than 10 years ago and this would take time and be challenging..The Supreme Court is seized of four petitions concerning the recent report published by short-seller Hindenburg Research alleging fraud on the part of the conglomerate by inflating share prices.The report had led to fall in the share value of various Adani companies and Adani Group reportedly suffered losses crossing $100 billion.The plea by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma before the top court has sought directions to the SEBI and the Union Home Ministry to conduct an inquiry and register a First Information Report (FIR) against founder of Hindenburg Research, Nathan Anderson, and his associates in India.The second petition on the issue was filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari seeking an inquiry into the Hindenburg report by a committee headed by a retired judge of the top court.The petition by Congress leader Dr. Jaya Thakur apart from seeking prosecution of the Adani group of companies, has questioned the decision of the State Bank of India (SBI) and the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to invest in the company's shares at an allegedly inflated prices.