ML Sharma moves Supreme Court for media gag on reports against Adani Group

A petition was filed before the Supreme Court on Monday seeking a gag order to halt media reports concerning listed companies including the Adani group of companies, unless such reports are first filed with and verified by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)..The miscellaneous petition was moved by advocate ML Sharma as part of his writ petition seeking a probe against Hindenburg Research founder, Nathan Anderson for the research group's recent report on the Adani group..The latest plea contended that nobody, including Anderson, has filed any evidence against the Adani group with SEBI till date. Rather, under media hype, short sellers are releasing unproved allegations in the media, which is hitting the Indian share market, Sharma submitted. ."Media hype have crashed Indian share Market more than 50%. Regular allegations /statements in media is creating panic amongst the investors who is selling their stock under panic and suffering financial losses. Common investors are being butchered which must be stopped in the interest of justice (sic)," the plea added..Such allegations are dangerous and the media cannot be allowed to continue releasing such allegations in any manner, the petitioner argued. If a gag order restraining the media is not issued, millions of innocent investor will suffer serious financial and reputation losses that cannot be compensation in terms of money, Sharma added. .He further argued that if an ex-parte gag order is issued to restrain the media from releasing statements and allegations unless they are pre-verified by SEBI, "there will be no loss and injury to any one and millions of investors will be protected.".Sharma's main petition has alleged that Anderson and his associates in India hatched a criminal conspiracy by short selling Adani stocks in hundreds of billion dollars before 'concocting' a research report related to the Adani Group. This was done in order to crash the stock market and square up their short sell position at the lowest rate, Sharma alleged.