The Centre on Monday agreed to a committee to be set up by the Supreme Court for strengthening the regulatory regime following the Hindenberg-Adani episode. It, however, added that the remit of the panel has to be very specific so that it doesn’t affect the flow of money and investments.
During a hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the government has no objection to appointing a committee to suggest how to ensure investors are protected in future and that the SEBI is competent to deal with the situation.
The Supreme Court asked the Centre to submit a note on the proposed terms of reference by Wednesday. The next hearing will be on Friday.
On Friday, the apex court had implored the government to put in place a “robust framework” by amending laws and strengthening supervisory control in order to protect thousands of investors who have been hit after a report by US firm Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of fraud, leading to a massive slide in its stocks.
Dealing with two public interest litigations (PIL) that highlighted how the shares of the listed firms of the Adani Group lost a record $120 billion (close to 50 per cent of value) within a matter of days, and led to massive losses to investors, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud proposed the constitution of an expert committee under the supervision of a retired judge to formulate the way forward.
“If the Union (government) is ready to accept the suggestion, the necessary recommendation of the committee may be made,” said the court in its order, while asking solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Centre and the market regulator Sebi, to submit by February 13 a detailed report on the current regime and the changes that can be planned to make it more robust in the future.
