NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted SEBI time till August 14 to complete its probe with regards to the Adani Hindenburg row.
A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala asked SEBI to apprise the bench about the stage of investigation and submit an “updated status report.”
“Tell us what you’ve done. We’ve granted you an extension of further 3 months. We are not granting you an indefinite extension of time, if there is genuine difficulty let us know. We could’ve given you time till September 30 but tell us what the stage of investigation is there. Give us an updated status report of the investigation,” CJI told SG Tushar Mehta appearing for the Market Regulator.
The Supreme Court has also directed that the copies of the report submitted by the Justice Sapre panel will be shared with the parties of the case and their counsels and requested the panel to assist them in further deliberations. The next hearing will be held in July.
“The experts Committee has submitted a report bearing in mind the timeline of 2 months in the order constituting the committee. In order to enable the court and counsel to analyse the report and reflect on the suggestions made in the committee the proceedings shall be listed on July 11, 2023. The expert committee is requested to continue to assist the court and may hold further deliberations in the meantime. The committee would be requested to take any further aspects of suggestions as may be formal eye by the court when the proceedings are next listed. Copies of the report of the expert committee shall be made available to parties and their counsel. The registry shall take steps accordingly,” the bench in the order said.
SEBI on Monday filed a rejoinder affidavit in the Supreme Court giving additional reasons for seeking more time to probe into the Adani-Hindenburg issues. It stated that the transactions are complex and require more time to examine. Rejoinder Affidavit is the response by the petitioner to the counter affidavit filed by the respondent.
Underscoring the complexity of transactions referred, SEBI has said, “In respect of the investigation/examination relating to 12 transactions referred to in the Hindenburg Report, prima facie it is noted that these transactions are highly complex and have many sub-transactions across numerous jurisdictions and a rigorous investigation of these transactions would require collation of data/information from various sources including bank statements from multiple domestic as well as international banks, financial statements of onshore and offshore entities involved in the transactions and contracts and agreements, if any, entered between the entities along with other supporting documents. Thereafter, the analysis would have to be conducted on the documents received from various sources before conclusive findings can be arrived at.”
While proposing to grant three months to SEBI to complete the probe instead of the six months sought, CJI DY Chandrachud on Friday had said, “To now extend 6 months time may not be appropriate and we will extend the time for 3 months because they have a point in saying that SEBI was already investigating. We’ll place the matter around August 14. Six months cannot be given as a minimum time. SEBI cannot take an indefinitely long period and we will give them 3 months. There has to be some alacrity in completing the investigation. Put together a team,” CJI said.