Following the stock market decline in the Adani group shares following the release of a report by US-based short-selling firm Hindenburg Research, another PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court of India. The PIL petitioner, attorney Vishal Tiwari, brought up the case today for an urgent listing before Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala. 

Advocate Vishal Tiwari responded to the Chief Justice's question by submitting: "A similar petition is also coming tomorrow. This pertains to the Hindenburg report which has tarnished the image of the country and caused loss. This may be also heard tomorrow with the other matter."

The PIL Tiwari filed asks for the creation of a committee with a retired Supreme Court judge as its chairman to look into the information in the Hindeburg Research Report. 

In response to the request, the CJI ordered that the PIL be tagged with another one that will be heard tomorrow (10th February 2023). 

The other petition in question, submitted by advocate and frequent litigant ML Sharma, seeks to classify "short-selling" as a fraud offence. In the aforementioned petition, Nathan Anderson, the founder of Hindenburg, is being investigated, "for exploiting innocent Investors via short selling under the garb of artificial crashing".

The US-based Hindenburg company released a report on January 24 accusing the Adani Group of extensive manipulations and wrongdoing in order to artificially increase its stock values. By producing a 413-page response, Adani Group answered the accusations and even went so far as to call them an attack on India. In retaliation, Hindeburg asserted that "fraud cannot be veiled by nationality" and defended its report. 

The share price of Adani has been plummeting ever since the Hindeburg report was released. With stock prices falling, the troubled business was also compelled to recall its FPO.

Case Details:-

W.P. (Crl) No. 39/2023

Manohar Lal Sharma

Vs.

Union of India

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