The six-member panel appointed by the Supreme Court in the Adani-Hindenburg case has submitted their observations in a sealed cover before the Supreme Court —which will hear the matter on May 12.

While the committee has submitted its note, it is unclear whether the panel has completed its investigation or sought more time, according to media reports.

Its submission comes after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) sought a six-month extension to complete its probe into the allegations of stock price manipulation by the Adani group and lapses in regulatory disclosure.

The top court is likely to hear the request made by the market regulator on May 12.

The Supreme Court had on March 2 asked Sebi to probe within two months the allegations of share fraud and had set up the panel to look at providing protection to Indian investors after the Hindenburg report erased more than $140 billion of the Adani group’s market value.

The remit of the expert panel headed by Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre, a former judge of the Supreme Court, was to provide an ``overall assessment of the situation including the relevant causal factors which have led to the volatility in the securities market in the recent past, to suggest measures to strengthen investor awareness and to investigate whether there has been regulatory failure in dealing with the alleged contravention of laws pertaining to the securities market in relation to the Adani group or other companies’’.

It was also told to suggest measures to strengthen the statutory and/or regulatory framework, and secure compliance with the existing framework for the protection of investors.

According to the cause list uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala is scheduled to hear the pleas.

In its application, Sebi said it needed six more months for ascertaining possible violations related to “misrepresentation of financials, circumvention of regulations and/or fraudulent nature of transactions”.

Mauritius denial

In a boost to the embattled Adani group, Mauritian financial services minister Mahen Kumar Seeruttun has told the nation’s Parliament that Hindenburg Research’s allegations of the presence of ‘’shell’’ companies in the island nation are ‘’false and baseless’’ and that Mauritius was in compliance with OECD-mandated tax rules.

A shell company is an inactive firm used as a vehicle for various financial manoeuvres.

When a Member of Parliament (MP) through a written notice question asked the minister about Hindenburg’s allegation of use of Mauritius-based entities as conduits for money laundering and share price manipulation for the Adani Group, the minister said the nation’s law does not allow shell companies.

Written with PTI inputs