Hindenburg: SC refuses to gag media

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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday turned down a plea seeking directions to restrain the media from reporting on the Adani-Hindenburg till the court pronounces its order, terming the demand as unreasonable.

“We are not going to issue any injunction ever against the media,” CJI DY Chandrachud told advocate ML Sharma, who told the Bench during mentioning of urgent matters that the media was indulging in sensational reporting on the issue. “Make a reasonable argument…not for injunction against the media,” the CJI said. The Bench has already reserved its orders on setting up an expert committee to examine the regulatory mechanism to protect investors in the wake of the Hindenburg Research report that resulted in a sudden crash of the Adani Group shares.

The Supreme Court had on February 17 refused to accept names of experts submitted by the Centre in a sealed cover, saying: “We will select the 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.”

Reserving its order on petitions seeking a probe into the Hindenburg-Adani report, the Bench had said it could not start with the presumption of regulatory failure.

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.