Plea filed in SC for fresh experts panel to probe Adani Hindenburg issue

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court for a direction to set up a fresh experts committee to probe the Adani group in the wake of the the Hindenburg report in view of apparent conflict of interest of members of the previous panel formed by the top court.

An application filed by writ petitioner Anamika Jaiswal cited alleged instances showing conflict of interest between former SBI chairman O P Bhat, former ICICI chairman M V Kamath, advocate Somashekhar Sundaresan and the Adani group.

All the members were nominated by the top court in the committee headed by retired SC judge, Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre.

On March 02, 2023, the apex court, acting on a batch of petitions filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari and others, constituted the expert committee to investigate inter alia the allegations made against the Adani Group in the Hindenburg report, and whether there was a regulatory failure in the same. 

The committee also consisted of Justice J P Devadhar, and co founder Infosys, Nandan Nilekani.

The applicant said Bhatt is presently working as the Chairman of Greenko, a leading renewable energy company. Since March, 2022 Greenko and Adani Group are working in a close partnership to provide energy to Adani Groups facilities in India. The said partnership came right before an energy deal in Davos between the Andhra Pradesh government and three energy companies including Greenko and Adani, showing clear conflict of interest.

Besides, the plea claimed Bhatt was examined by the CBI in March 2018 in a case of alleged wrongdoing in disbursing loans to the former liquor baron and fugitive economic offender, Vijay Mallya. 

"Mallya is accused of defrauding banks, including SBI, of $1.2 billion. Bhatt served as the SBI chairman between 2006 and 2011 when the majority of these loans were advanced to Mallya's companies. CBI has alleged that the SBI-led consortium of lenders did not conduct any 'forensic audit' despite being aware of the 'poor financial health' of Mallya's companies," it claimed.

With regard to Kamath, the applicant said he was the chairman of ICICI Bank from 1996 to 2009, figured in CBI FIR in the ICICI Bank fraud case. 

"The case relates to Chanda Kocchar who served as the Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank from 2009 to 2018. The CBI alleged that she and her family received various kickbacks over her tenure in lieu of loans provided to the Videocon group, many of which turned into non- performing assets (NPAs). Kamath was the non-executive chairman of the bank when some of those loans were approved and a member of the committee that sanctioned/approved the loans," it contended.

About another member Sundaresan, the applicant alleged that he has been a lawyer representing Adani before various forums including the SEBI Board.

"There is an apprehension that the present expert committee would fail to inspire confidence among the people of the country. A fresh expert committee may be constituted by this court with experts from field of finance, law and stock market with impeccable integrity with no conflict of interest," the plea said.

In its report filed in May, 2023, the committee had said that there was no regulatory failure in relation to compliance with the regime governing minimum public shareholding stipulation in Adani group.

The panel found no conclusive proof of price manipulations in Adani scrips.

It said, “Hindenburg report contained no new data but was substantially a collection of inferences from data in the public domain”.