SEBI’s big disclosure in the Supreme Court, investigation of Adani group companies is not going on since 2016

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) informed the Supreme Court that it has not investigated any of the Adani Group companies since 2016, as alleged by some petitioners. In a rejoinder affidavit, the market regulator stated that the contentions raised by the petitioners in their rejoinder affidavit have no relation to the issues relating to and/or arising out of the Hindenburg Report. It added that the matter referred to in the reply affidavit of the petitioners pertains to issuance of Global Depository Receipts by 51 Indian listed companies.

SEBI’s affidavit states that after completion of the investigation, appropriate enforcement action was taken in the matter. Therefore, the allegation that Adani is being investigated since 2016 is factually baseless and the demand to rely on GDR related investigations is completely false. The market regulator said that SEBI has already approached eleven foreign regulators under the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMOU) with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) with regard to examining the minimum public shareholding (MPS) norms and various A request was made for the information. The first request to overseas regulators was made on October 6, 2020.

SEBI informed that it had submitted a detailed note to the Expert Committee constituted by the Supreme Court in the wake of the Hindenburg Research Report and includes the steps taken, responses received and the current status of information gathered.