Meet the 6 members of the SC committee that will probe Adani Hindenburg issue

Mar 2, 2023

By: Katya Naidu

Panel to suggest measures

The committee will "suggest measures to strengthen investor awareness and to investigate whether there has been a regulatory failure in dealing with the alleged contravention of laws pertaining to the securities market in relation to the Adani Group or other companies," the court said, as per a PTI report. Here are the experts who will be a part of the panel.

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Former SC judge Abhay Sapre to head the panel

The committee will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Abhay Sapre. Justice Sapre, who retired in 2019, had been an SC judge for five years. He also served as the chief justice of Manipur and Guwahati high courts before that, as per Supreme Court Observer.

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Former boss of ICICI Bank KV Kamath

Former CEO of ICICI Bank, KV Kamath now chairs the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID). He had held many top positions at Infosys and the New Development Bank. In 2022, he was appointed as independent director to Reliance Strategic Investments.

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Nandan Nilekeni of Infosys

The co-founder of Infosys, Nandan Nilekeni is more popularly known as the architect of UIDAI- Aadhar. He was a member of the Indian National Congress party, but has not been active in politics since 2019.

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Securities expert Somasekhar Sundaresan

Advocate Somasekhar Sundaresan is known as a securities and regulatory expert. He specializes in financial sector regulation, competition law, company matters and exchange controls, says an Indian Express report. A graduate from Government Law College, Mumbai, he worked as a journalist before taking up law practice.

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Former Bombay HC Justice JP Devadhar

Retired judge JP Devadhar was appointed as the presiding officer of the Securities and Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in 2013. Devdhar has been a counsel to the Union of India and the Income Tax Department in the 1980s. He became a judge at Bombay High Court in 2001.

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Former chairman of SBI, OP Bhatt

The former chairman of State Bank of India (SBI), OP Bhatt retired in 2011. Ever since, he has served as a director on the boards of several companies like ONGC, Tata Steel, TCS, Tata Motors and Hindustan Unilever. He is also a non-executive director of Standard Chartered.

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Report in 2 months

The court asked the panel to submit its report in a sealed cover within two months. It also directed markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to investigate whether there was any manipulation of stock prices, and also gave it two months to produce the report.

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Public Interest Litigations

This SC was hearing four public interest litigations across various issues pertaining to the Hindenburg report – including the constitution of a committee relating to regulatory mechanisms to protect investors interests.

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