'Won't accept sealed cover suggestions': Supreme Court to Centre on Adani issue

CJI DY Chandrachud said if the court accepts suggestions from a sealed cover, the other party won't know. “We want to ensure transparency,” the CJI said as the top court heard petitions on Adani-Hindenburg issue.

As the Supreme Court on Friday heard petitions on the Adani-Hindenburg issue, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said the top court will not accept sealed cover suggestions from the Centre. "We want to ensure transparency. In case we take your suggestions from sealed cover, it automatically means the other party won't know," the CJI said. "We want full transparency for the protection of investors. We will form a committee. There will be a sense of confidence in the court," the CJI said, as the hearing went on. Read | Adani-Hindenburg row: SC flags loss of 'lakhs of crores', questions efficacy of SEBI's framework

The Supreme Court. (ANI)(HT_PRINT)

On February 10, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to consider setting up a panel of domain experts headed by a former judge to strengthen the market regulatory mechanism in the wake of the allegations of stock manipulation against the Adani Group.

Accordingly, the Centre on Friday submitted a note in a sealed cover to the court suggesting possible names of members who can be part of the committee. The bench of CJI, Justice S Narasimha and JB Pardiwala indicated that it will constitute the committee by doing its own research and reserved order on the composition of the committee.

"We can't start with a presumption of regulatory failure," the CJI said.

So far, four PILs have been filed in the Supreme Court on the Adani-Hindenburg issue by lawyers M L Sharma and Vishal Tiwari, Congress leader Jaya Thakur and activist Mukesh Kumar. ML Sharma demanded an investigation into Hindenburg too.

(With inputs from Bureau)