The Supreme Court is set to review a plea filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in February next year. This plea challenges a 2019 Bombay High Court decision that invalidated the letters rogatory sent to Singapore and other countries as part of the DRI's investigation into alleged overvaluation of Indonesian coal imports by Adani Group firms.

The Supreme Court is expected to take into account a new response submitted by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in the ongoing case.

On October 17, 2019, the high court invalidated all the letters rogatory (LRs) issued by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to Singapore and other nations as part of its ongoing investigation into the Adani Group firms. 

In January 2020, a bench led by then Chief Justice S A Bobde, upon hearing the appeal filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), issued notices to Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) and other parties involved.

At that time, the bench had issued an interim stay of the operation of the challenged final judgment and order dated October 17, 2019, passed by the high court.

During the hearing of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence's (DRI) appeal, the Supreme Court acknowledged the arguments presented by the additional solicitor general. It was mentioned that the Supreme Court had framed certain questions in another case, and some of those questions would be pertinent in determining the appeal against the high court order in the current case.

On October 10, a bench comprising Justices A S Oka and Pankaj Mithal directed that the special leave petition (SLP) in question would be heard concurrently with SLP (Crl) No. 4821 of 2023. Both matters were instructed to be placed before the appropriate bench for further proceedings.

The two cases will be considered jointly on February 6, 2024.

According to the high court's order, it stated that it did not delve into the substance of the Letters of Request (LRs) issued by a metropolitan magistrate. However, the court observed that proper procedures were not adhered to during the issuance of those LRs.

Letters of Request (LRs) are dispatched to investigative or judicial agencies in foreign countries when information is needed as part of an investigation that involves offshore entities.

The high court granted approval for a writ petition submitted by AEL, contesting the actions of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in obtaining the Letters of Request (LRs).

"The actions taken by the respondents in implementing the letters rogatory issued by the learned metropolitan magistrate, Mumbai, cannot be upheld and should be annulled and revoked," stated the order of the high court.

"We want to emphasize that we have not examined the substance of the letters rogatory issued by the magistrate," declared the statement from the court.

In September, AEL approached the high court with a request to invalidate the Letters of Request (LRs) issued in 2016.

In March 2016, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) commenced an investigation into several Adani Group companies for suspected overvaluation of coal imports from Indonesia spanning the years 2011 to 2015.

The Letters of Request (LRs) were issued to Singapore, Dubai, and Hong Kong, soliciting assistance in obtaining documents held by overseas branches of three state-owned banks. These documents were relevant to transactions under investigation.