SC: Won't accept names given by govt for panel on investors' safety

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 17

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to accept names of experts submitted by the Centre in a sealed cover for a panel to be set up to suggest remedial measures to safeguard investors’ interests in the wake of the Hindenburg Research report that led to the crash of Adani Group shares.

“We will select experts and maintain full transparency. If we take names from the government, it would amount to a government-constituted committee. There has to be full (public) confidence in the committee,” a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said.

After receiving a note from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on the members and remit (scope) of the proposed panel, the Bench said: “We would rather not accept the sealed cover suggestions. We want to ensure transparency. In case we take your suggestions from a sealed cover, it automatically means the other party won’t know,” it said.

It also refused to accept SEBI’s suggestion for an expert committee to examine changes required in the regulatory framework, saying it would itself appoint a panel to maintain “fullest transparency” for protection of investors. Maintaining that it would not take suggestions from either the government or the petitioners on the composition of the expert committee, the top court said it would select experts on its own.

However, the Bench made it clear that it would not appoint a sitting judge to examine the issue. Reserving its order on petitions seeking a probe into the Hindenburg-Adani report, the Bench said it could not start with the presumption of a regulatory failure.

There are four PILs on the issue pending before the top court, one each by advocates ML Sharma and Vishal Tiwari; Madhya Pradesh Congress leader Jaya Thakur and one Manish Kumar.