The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea the gag the media from reporting on the Adani-Hindenburg issue until the court issues its decision.
CJI DY Chandrachud said this when one of the petitioners in the case before the court, lawyer ML Sharma, mentioned his plea for a media gag.
Prior to this, on February 17, the Supreme Court had reserved verdict in a group of four petitions involving a report released by short seller Hindenburg Research that alleged fraud on the part of the conglomerate and caused the Adani Group to incur losses of more than $100 billion.
One of the four petitioners, Sharma, has asked the SEBI and the Union Home Ministry to launch an investigation and file a First Information Report (FIR) against Nathan Anderson, the founder of Hindenburg Research, and his collaborators in India.
Sharma has also asked for a gag order to prevent media coverage about publicly traded firms unless they are first submitted to and approved by the SEBI.
On February 17, the Supreme Court dismissed the Central government’s proposal in a sealed cover for the next steps regarding the Hindenburg Research study on the Adani Group of Companies and the resulting market impact.
After that, a bench consisting of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha, and JB Pardiwala declared that the Court would instead form a committee on its own because accepting the government’s suggestion under a sealed cover might give the impression that the committee was formed by the government.
It then reserved its decision, which has not yet been made.
