Adani vs Hindenburg: Supreme Court panel finds no SEBI failure on price manipulation at this stage

Supreme Court's Justice A M Sapre (Retired) committee report on Adani VS Hindenburg group of companies was made public on Friday, after the top court asked it to do so.

Justice A M Sapre (Retd) committee, was constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the Hindenburg allegations against Adani.

The report is 178 pages.

The report said, prima facie, there is no regulatory failure on part of SEBI.

The Sapre Committee, in its report, noted that all such investigations must be completed in a time-bound manner.

At this stage, taking into account the explanations provided by SEBI, supported by empirical data, prima facie, it would not be possible for the Committee to conclude that there has been a regulatory failure around the allegation of price manipulation.

It was submitted by SEBI that while the price rise of shares of AEL rose as discussed, no evident pattern of manipulative contribution to price rise could be attributed to any single entity or group of connected entities, the committee report said.

The Committee has asked SEBI to prepare similar charts with data across all the Adani stocks and present the same for analysis.

This can be work in progress as indeed is the intended probe into those who build short, it said.

The Committee's report is not to examine whether the price rise was justified, whereas its remit is to ascertain if there was a regulatory failure. It is apparent that SEBI was actively engaged with developments and price movements in the market, the report added.

(With UNI inputs)