New Delhi. The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking review of its January 3 verdict that refused to hand over the probe into stock price manipulation allegations against the Adani Group to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or a Special Investigation Team (SIT). A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra dismissed the review petition filed by Anamika Jaiswal, one of the petitioners who had earlier sought intervention through a public interest litigation (PIL). In its May 5 order, the bench said, “On considering the review petition, no error appears on record. No case for review under Order 47 Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 is made out. Consequently, the review petition is dismissed.”
The decision was taken after deliberations in the chamber. Earlier, on January 3, the Supreme Court had rejected a request to order a CBI or SIT probe into the allegations of share price manipulation, insisting that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was already conducting a “comprehensive investigation” and its conduct was “reassuring”. The review petition had argued that the January 3 verdict contained “mistakes and errors” and cited fresh material received by the petitioner’s counsel as sufficient grounds for a review. It was argued that SEBI in its report to the court had only informed about the status of 24 investigations initiated following the allegations but had not clarified whether these investigations were completed or ongoing. The Supreme Court had in its earlier verdict said that SEBI had completed its investigation into 22 of the 24 allegations against the Adani Group.
The January 3 decision came in the wake of serious allegations leveled by Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group in January 2023, including fraudulent transactions and stock price manipulation. Following these allegations, Adani Group shares fell sharply. However, the Adani Group dismissed these allegations as baseless and said it had complied with all legal requirements.
