Supreme Court judge Justice Ok Vinod Chandran on Monday (September 8, 2025) recused from hearing a plea seeking instructions to authorities to analyze allegations made by U.S. short vendor Viceroy Research that billionaire Anil Agarwal’s mining conglomerate was “financially unsustainable” and posing extreme danger to collectors.
Taking observe of Justice Chandran’s recusal, the Bench additionally comprising Chief Justice of India B. R. Gavai and Atul Chandurkar adjourned the plea filed by advocate Shakti Bhatia.
Mr. Bhatia, in his plea, contended that he independently corroborated parts of the Viceroy report, notably concerning undisclosed related-party transactions, by reviewing MCA21 filings, SEBI disclosures and Registrar of Companies information.
The petition submitted that sure high-value transactions concerned counterparties neither declared as associated events nor subjected to shareholder approval as mandated.
Viceroy Research had launched a report charging billionaire Agarwal’s mining conglomerate as “financially unsustainable” and posing a extreme danger to collectors, allegations which the group referred to as “selective misinformation and baseless” geared toward discrediting the group.
Viceroy had mentioned it was shorting the debt stack of Vedanta Resources, the mother or father firm and majority proprietor of Mumbai-listed Vedanta Ltd, because it launched the 85-page report.
Shorting debt, also referred to as short promoting of bonds, is a buying and selling technique the place an investor seems to revenue from a decline within the value of bonds or different debt devices. It includes borrowing the bond, promoting it on the present market value, after which shopping for it again later at a probably cheaper price to return to the lender, pocketing the distinction as revenue.
Calling Vedanta Resources Ltd (VRL) a “heavily indebted parent”, Viceroy mentioned, “The entire group structure is financially unsustainable, operationally compromised, and poses a severe, under-appreciated risk to creditors”.
