Meet the members of SC-appointed panel on Adani Group share crash

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday set up a six-member panel to probe allegations against Adani Group, after a bombshell report from an American short seller wiped out more than $140 billion off the conglomerate’s market value.

The committee is also tasked with assessing if there has been regulatory failure and to suggest measures to strengthen the framework.

JUSTICE A M SAPRE

Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre, who will head the six-member committee, has practised civil, constitutional, and labour law in the Madhya Pradesh High Court (HC) for about 20 years. He had earlier served as Chief Justice of Gauhati HC and as the first Chief Justice of Manipur HC.

He was appointed as Additional Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 1999. On October 24, 2001 he was appointed as a permanent Judge. On February 11, 2010, he assumed charge at the Rajasthan High Court’s Principal Seat in Jodhpur.

JUSTICE J P DEVADHAR

Justice J P Devadhar, who is also a part of the six-member committee, was chairperson of the Securities Appellate Tribunal from July 2013- July 2018. He started to practice law at Bombay HC in 1977. Since then, he began practicing at the HC in Constitutional Law and other branches of Civil Law and particularly Cooperative Societies Act, Service Law, Rent Act, Customs Act, Excise Act and Direct Tax Laws such as Income-Tax, Wealth Tax and Gift Tax.

SOMASEKHAR SUNDARESAN

Regarded as one of the sharpest minds in the field of securities law, Somasekhar Sundaresan started his career as a journalist but soon left it to pursue a career in law.

He steadily established himself as one of the country’s leading securities lawyers. After a stint as a partner at the law firm JSA, Sundaresan began his practice. He has been a member of committees set up by the Union government, Securities and Exchange Board of India, and the Reserve Bank of India.

At present, Sundaresan is serving on the advisory committee of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India on corporate insolvency and liquidation.

His name was recently recommended to the Centre as judge of Bombay High Court. The SC collegium later reiterated his name for judgeship after the Centre raised an objection.

An amateur mountaineer, he has also written opinion pieces for leading newspapers.

NANDAN NILEKANI

Nandan Nilekani is co-founder and non-executive chairman Infosys, India’s second-largest information technology services company. After a successful tenure at Infosys, Nilekani is also the architect of Aadhaar and was founding chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India in the rank of a Cabinet minister from 2009-2014.

Nilekani has co-founded and is the Chairman of EkStep, a not-for-profit effort to create a learner centric, technology-based platform to improve basic literacy and numeracy for millions of children.

He also played a crucial role in the creation and launch of the Open Network for Digital Commerce. He also helped develop the Unified Payments Interface, which has democratised digital payments.

In January 2023, he was appointed co-chair of the ‘G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure for Economic Transformation, Financial Inclusion’ and Development’.

O P BHAT

Former chairman of State Bank of India, Om Prakash Bhatt is an independent director on the boards of a several multinationals, including Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel, and Tata Motors and the non-executive chairman of Greenko Energy Holdings (Mauritius) and Aadhar Housing Finance. He was also chairman of Indian Banks’ Association.

During Bhatt’s tenure as SBI’s longest-serving chairman (June 2006-March 2011), the state-run bank launched the teaser home loan scheme which led to a spat with the banking regulator.

The Reserve Bank of India later increased the standard asset provision requirements for such loans.

Bhatt is a graduate in science and a postgraduate in English Literature. He also served India’s economic diplomacy as the government nominee for the India-US CEO Forum, Indo-French CEO Forum and Indo-Russia CEO Forum, forging links with a cross-section of the world’s business leaders.

K V KAMATH

K V Kamath is a veteran Indian banker who started his career with Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (later named ICICI Bank).

Under him, ICICI Bank transformed itself into a diversified financial services company and became a retail-oriented bank. He served as MD and CEO of the bank from May 1996 to April 2009 and later as non-executive chairman.

Kamath held various coveted positions, including chief of the New Development Bank of BRICS countries, chairman of Infosys, among others. He has also been associated with names like Schlumberger and Lupin.

He has also been appointed as chairperson of the newly set up development finance institution NaBFID.

At present, he is also on the board of Reliance Industries and has been appointed non-executive chairman of Retail Strategic Investments, which will later be named Jio Financial Services.

Compiled by Manojit Saha, Shivani Shinde, Sundar Sethuraman, Subrata Panda, and Bhavini Mishra