The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition that sought ban on the media from reporting on the Adani-Hindenburg issue until the court pronounced its order.
The Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud observed that it would not issue any injunction ever against the media. The Apex Court further told petitionber and Advocate M.L. Sharma to make a ‘reasonable’ argument, not for injunction against the media.
The top court of the country further said that it would pass the orders on the matter shortly.
Advocate Sharma urged the court to consider the request, as the media was creating a sensation on the issue. However, the court refused to accept his demand.
The PIL filed by Sharma sought to declare ‘short-selling’ as an offence of fraud. This plea urged the Apex Court to direct probe against Nathan Anderson, founder of US-based short-selling company Hindenburg Research, for ‘exploiting’ innocent investors via short selling under the ‘garb’ of artificial crashing. .
Besides Sharma, the top court of the country is currently hearing two more petitions related to the Hindenburg-Adani issue.
A petition filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur sought investigation against the Adani Group over charges of share inflation by way of manipulations and malpractices, as alleged in a report published by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research.
It further sought probe into the role of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the State Bank of India (SBI) for allegedly investing huge amount of public money in the FPO of Adani Enterprises at the rate of Rs 3200 per share when the prevailing market rate of the shares was around Rs 1800 per share in the secondary market.
Alleging that industrialist Gautam Adani and his associates had ‘swindled’ lakhs of crores of ‘public money,’ the petitioner sought probe by investigating agencies like CBI, ED, DRI, SEBI, RBI and SFIO under the supervision and monitoring of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court.
Another PIL filed by Vishal Tiwari sought constitution of a committee under the chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court Judge to investigate the contents of the Hindenburg Research Report.
Earlier on February 20, the Apex Court had refused to take on record a report published by Forbes about share dealings of the Gautam Adani group in the Adani-Hindenburg issue.
On February 17, the top court of the country had reserved its orders on constituting a committee to review the regulatory measures, so as to protect Indian investors.