SC refuses to restrain media from reporting on Adani issue

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea seeking to gag the media from reporting on the Adani-Hindenburg issue till the court pronounces its order.

The apex court had reserved its order on February 20 on a batch of PILs on the recent Adani Group shares crash triggered by the Hindenburg Research's fraud allegations.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud declined the plea of advocate M L Sharma who mentioned the matter.

"We are not going to issue any injunction to the media," the bench also comprising Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala said.

The top court on Monday had refused to take on record the suggestion of one of the petitioners and a report published by Forbes in a batch of PILs.

The top court on February 17 had refused to accept in a sealed cover the Centre's suggestion on a proposed panel of experts for strengthening regulatory measures for the stock market.

Observing that it wants to maintain full transparency in the interests of investors, it said it would rather not accept the Centre's suggestion in a sealed cover.

"We will not accept the sealed cover suggestion by you because we want to maintain full transparency," the bench had said.

On February 10, the top court had said the interests of Indian investors need to be protected against market volatility in the backdrop of the Adani Group stock rout and asked the Centre to consider setting up a panel of domain experts headed by a former judge to look into strengthening the regulatory mechanism.

Till now, four PILs have been filed in the top court on the issue by lawyers M L Sharma and Vishal Tiwari, Congress leader Jaya Thakur and activist Mukesh Kumar.

Adani Group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after the Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation, against the business conglomerate.

The Adani Group has dismissed the charges as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.