The Supreme Court sought Centre and Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) views to ensure interests of Indian investors are protected in the wake of Adani-Hindenburg row.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said there is a need for improvement in regulatory framework. “We are not casting any aspersions on SEBI. We need to consider if any modifications of regulatory framework is required. We need to put in a regulatory mechanism to ensure it does not happen in future,” said CJI Chandrachud.
The CJI further said, “Can we have an experts committee? Come back on Monday. We can have members from Securities sector, international banking, SEB Take instructions and come back on Monday.”
The Supreme Court took up the matter after a PIL was filed in the court seeking probe into short seller’s report which allegedly resulted in lakhs of crores of investors being wiped out.
The apex court also suggested that there is a need for robust regulatory framework to protect interest of investors.
CJI Chandrachud to Solicitor General: Anyways, the matter has been brought before us. How do we ensure protection of interest of Indian investors. But see we will like to clarify that it’s not a witch-hunt against you. We only want to know certain things. This is an issue of short selling. Going by the petitions, Indian investors have lost several lakh crores.”
At the end of hearing, the CJI Chandrachud clarified that this order is not a reflection on functioning of any regulatory authority or SEBI. “Our only intention is to protect interest of investors, looking into if any improvement is required in the present regulatory framework,” CJI said.
Meanwhile, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that SEBI seized of the matter. The SG assures apex court that SEBI is doing all that it can.
