India's Supreme Court on July 11 deferred the hearing in the Adani-Hindenburg case to August, a day after the markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), submitted a 41-page affidavit placing on record the recommendations by an expert committee and petitioners in the matter.

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During today’s hearing, the solicitor general appearing for Sebi noted that Sebi has filed the response to suggestions coming from the expert committee.

The top court asked Sebi about the status of the investigation for which it has given time till August 15. To this, Sebi said the probe was underway with all available resources and suggested that the matter now be heard in August.

The hearing comes a day after Sebi submitted the affidavit and opposed the top court-appointed panel’s call to prescribe timelines for investigations. It expressed disagreement with the panel's call for a fresh “robust” settlement scheme and said the scheme was already in place since 2018 and rejected the claim that it has “crashed.”

Meanwhile, the petitioner today told the Supreme Court that the conclusions of the expert committee were at variance with the fact-finding by the expert panel. Not only has there been a gross regulatory failure, there is no chance of investigation proceeding, the petitioner said, adding that Sebi has done four to five things that are fatal for the probe.

The probe comes against the backdrop of India's Supreme Court appointing an expert panel along with markets regulator Sebi to investigate the drop in Adani Group shares, triggered by Hindenburg Research's fraud allegations. Hindenburg Research on January 24 accused Adani of "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud" as well as using a "labyrinthian network" of shell companies for surreptitious money movements.

The allegations were strongly denied by the conglomerate, calling the report "a calculated attack on India". The report lopped off close to $150 billion in market value of the group's list companies at the lowest point and led to Adani losing the richest Indian tag.

The Supreme Court today noted that as Sebi has filed a response to the expert panel’s report on the functioning of Sebi, the markets regulator’s response should be made available to all parties.

It added that the Sebi investigation must conclude by August 15 as an extension has already been granted.