Supreme Court on Wednesday granted relief to the embattled Adani Group in the Hindenburg case. In its order for the case filed by bunch of petitioners asking for a probe into allegations against the 35-year-old group, the apex court said that its power to enter the regulatory framework of SEBI is limited. It has refused to order an SIT probe and asked SEBI to complete the remaining investigation in two cases within three months. The regulator has completed probes in 22 out of 24 cases so far.
This comes almost a year after the New York-based short seller Hindenburg Research published a scathing report against Adani Group, alleging stock manipulation and violation of public shareholding rules.
The ruling is expected to boost the stocks of the firm on the bourses, which have already comeback from the lows of February. From the all time low of Rs 5.8 lakh crore, the market cap has rebounded to over Rs 15 lakh crore.
In response to the Hindenburg report, Adani Group had published an over 400 page long response to allay concerns of investors. However, the market cap of the group fell over 50 per cent in the aftermath of the Hindenburg storm.
The case moved to the Supreme Court where the Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud-led bench set up an expert panel to look into the allegations and also asked market regulator SEBI to submit a report on the issue.
The expert panel concluded its proceedings in May and found no evidence of stock price manipulation by the group. In its report, it also backed the role of SEBI and said that were no signs of regulatory oversight.
The apex court had given time to the regulator till August 14 initially to submit its report but SEBI asked for some extensions to finish of the probe. In November, the regulator informed the bench that investigations in 22 out of 24 cases were over and it won't require further time to conclude its probe into the group. At the time, CJI Chandrachud remarked that the apex court trusts the regulator and won't rely on media reports for the evidence against Adani Group.
