New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said it would not accept sealed cover names of experts suggested by the Centre for inclusion on the committee to be set up to examine Hindenburg report, which resulted in crashing of Adani group company share prices and caused massive loss to investors.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the court will select experts and maintain full transparency, and if the court were to take names suggested by the central government then it would amount to a government constituted committee.
The bench, also comprising justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala, said the court wants full transparency for protection of interest of the investors and it will form a committee so that there is a sense of confidence in the court.
On the aspect of the remit of the committee, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted that there should be a holistic view and no unintended impact is caused in the security market. The bench orally observed that it cannot be denied that the investors have lost a lot.
Mehta added that so far as your lordship's suggestion that a former judge should sit on it, we don't mind.
The bench said that it would not set up a committee under a sitting apex court judge to look into the Hindenburg report matter. However, it said it may set up a committee headed by a retired apex court judge.
The bench told Mehta:
"We want to ensure transparency. In case we take your suggestions from a sealed cover, it automatically means the other party won't know."
The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas in connection with the Hindenburg report controversy.
One of the petitions sought a direction to set up a committee monitored by a retired apex court judge to investigate the Hindenburg Research report, which resulted in crashing of Adani group company share prices and caused massive loss to investors.
The Central government has told the Supreme Court that the "truthfulness" of the allegations levelled by a US short seller against the Adani Group should be examined and a fact-finding exercise is required to be undertaken as a one-time measure and without making it a precedent.
In a note submitted in the apex court, the Central government supported the formation of a committee to probe the allegations made in the Hindenburg report.
The government said in view of the unprecedented financial loss suffered by the investors and in view of the complexities involved in the subject which requires urgent consideration, a fact-finding exercise requires to be undertaken as a one-time measure and a committee can be constituted with a former judge of the Supreme Court as its head.
The Centre however proposed the committee could include the Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The Supreme Court however said it is for full transparency and rejected the centre's sealed cover suggestion on Hindenburg-Adani row.
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