Supreme Court dismisses review petition against Adani - Hindenburg Judgment

The Supreme Court has dismissed the review petition against its January 3 judgment in the Adani - Hindenburg case in which it had held that there was no need for it to take action on the allegations of stock manipulation levelled by US-based shortseller Hindenburg research against the Adani Group..In an order passed on May 8, a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that no case for review was made out."There is no error apparent on the face of the record. No case for review under Order XLVII Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules 2013. The review petition is, therefore, dismissed," the order said.The order was published on the website of the top court on Monday..The Supreme Court in its January verdict had refused to issue any directions or interfere with the jurisdiction of the SEBI in a batch of petitions seeking probe by some alternative agency into allegations of fraud against Adani Group of companies in the Hindenburg Research report.The Court had said that the scope of power of the Supreme Court to enter into the regulatory domain of SEBI in framing delegated legislation is limited and scope of judicial review is only to see whether any fundamental right has been violated."No valid ground invoked (in this case) for us to direct SEBI to revoke its regulations and the current regulations are tightened by amendments in question," the Court had ruledIt had further held that in the present case, there was no regulatory failure by SEBI and the market regulator cannot be expected to carry on its functions based on press reports though such report can act as inputs for SEBI.One of the petitioners, Anamika Jaiswal then filed the present review petition stating that there were multiple apparent errors in the Supreme Court's verdict."There are mistakes and errors apparent on the face of the impugned judgment/order dated 03.01.2024, and in light of certain new material that have been received by the counsel of the petitioner, the Petitioner respectfully submits that there are sufficient reasons which require review of the impugned order," the review petition stated.As per Jaiswal, new material showed that the Adani Group has been violating Rule 19A of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules (SCRR) of of 1957.The provision states that private listed companies must maintain a minimum public shareholding of 25 per cent within specified periods. In this light, the plea said,"This Hon’ble Court in its judgment dated 03.01.2024 failed to appreciate that while the issue of over-invoicing may have not been proved, the aspect of Adani promoters investing into Adani group stocks in Indian stock market, has never been investigated and calls for a thorough probe...Unless the findings of the SEBI investigations are publicly reported it cannot be concluded that there has been no regulatory failure.".[Read order]