Supreme Court rejects plea to gag media from reporting Adani-Hindenburg row

The Supreme Court on Friday (February 24) rejected a plea filed by advocate ML Sharma seeking to injunct the media from reporting on the Adani-Hindenburg row till the court delivers its verdict on the committee.

"We are not going to issue any injunction ever against the media", CJI DY Chandrachud told advocate ML Sharma when the latter made the plea to stop the media reports on the issue.

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Advocate Sharma filed a PIL seeking investigation against Hindenburg Research and repeated his request by saying that the media was creating a sensation. To this, the CJI said, "make a reasonable argument, not for injunction to the media". The top court also said that the bench will pass the orders shortly.

Earlier, the bench led by CJI had reserved orders on constituting an expert committee to review the regulatory mechanism to protect the Indian investors in the light of the Adani-Hindenburg row.

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The apex court also refused to accept the names suggested by the Centre in a closed envolop for inclusion in the proposed committee. The bench was hearing a bunch of PILs, two of them seeking investigation against Hindenburg and the other two seeking probe against Adani group.

On January 24, the US-based Hindenburg Research published its report accusing Adani Group of widespread manipulations and malpractices to inflate its stock prices.

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Adani Group refuted the allegations by publishing a 413-page reply and even went to the extent of terming it as an attack against India.

Hindenburg shot back with a rejoinder, saying that 'fraud cannot be obfuscated by nationalism' and stood by its report.