The Supreme Court on Thursday named a six-member expert committee to review the regulatory mechanism of India’s markets in the wake of the Adani group stock crash following the allegations made by short seller Hindenburg Research about the conglomerate.

The committee has been tasked with looking into the causal factors that led to the volatility in the securities market in the recent past and whether there had been a regulatory failure in dealing with the alleged contravention of laws by the Adani group or other companies, according to Bar and Bench. It has also been told to explore measures to strengthen the current statutory and regulatory framework, and increase investor awareness.

A bench comprising chief justice D.Y. Chandrachud and justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala told the panel to submit its report in a sealed cover within two months.

Who’s on the committee?

O.P. Bhatt. The 71-year-old former State Bank of India chairman was under the lens of the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with loans given to economic fugitive and liquor baron Vijay Mallya. Mallya defaulted on loans worth Rs 9,900 crore from an SBI-led consortium before fleeing to London in 2016; most of those loans were granted during Bhatt’s tenure (June 2006 to March 2011). The CBI had issued travel restrictions and a “lookout circular” against Bhatt, but the Bombay High Court quashed those in 2021.
K.V. Kamath. The 75-year-old former managing director and chief executive of ICICI Bank is seen as a close confidante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2019, the CBI had named Kamath in the first-information report in the Videocon-Chanda Kochchar fraud case. In the days that followed, then-finance minister Arun Jaitley came to Kamath’s defence and publicly lashed out at the CBI for what he called “investigative adventurism.”
Nandan Nilekani. A co-founder and non-executive chairman of Infosys, the 67-year-old is also the brain behind the controversial Unique Identification Authority of India project.
Somasekhar Sundaresan. A senior securities lawyer, he has been named a Bombay HC judge by the SC collegium, but the government has objected to his appointment, saying he “has aired his views in the social media on several matters which are the subject matter of consideration before the courts.” The collegium continues to back the 51-year-old Sundaresan.
Justice J.P. Devadhar. A retired Bombay HC judge, aged 71.
Justice A.M. Sapre will head the committee. A former SC judge, the 68-year-old Sapre was part of the nine-member apex court bench that ruled that privacy is a fundamental right of a person.

The SC also set a deadline of two months for the Securities and Exchange Board of India to complete its investigation into the Adani-Hindenburg matter. As part of its investigation, the bench told the markets regulator to also look into whether there were any violations of the laws related to minimum public shareholding, failure to disclose related-party transactions and other relevant information, and whether there had been stock price manipulation in the case of Adani companies.

Adani raises Rs 15,446 crore

The Adani group on Thursday said it has raised Rs 15,446 crore by selling minority stakes in four of its listed entities. US-based investment firm GQG Partners acquired 3.39% in Adani Enterprises, 0.04% in Adani Ports, 2.55% in Adani Transmission and 3.51% in Adani Green Energy from SB Adani Family Trust via secondary market block deals, according to BQ Prime.

Earlier in the day, Adani denied reports that it had secured a $3 billion loan from a sovereign wealth fund, calling the news as “a market rumour.” The group, whose listed firms have lost over $100 billion in market value since the Hindenburg report came out on 24 January, had closed out a three-day roadshow in Singapore and Hong Kong on Wednesday that was aimed at soothing investor and stakeholder concerns in the wake of the allegations. The New York-based short seller has accused Adani of stock manipulation, accounting irregularities and misappropriation of funds, among other things.