The Curious Case of Shortsellers and PILs

Our Founder and MD, Mr. Shriram Subramanian, recently wrote an article in The New Indian Express on the growing trend of short-seller reports being followed by Public Interest Litigations (PILs). This emerging pattern, seen earlier with the Adani group and more recently with Vedanta, raises important questions on the balance between market regulation and judicial intervention.

In this article, he highlights that while short-sellers play a role in financial markets, their reports are profit-driven and should not automatically form the basis of judicial proceedings. Regulatory bodies like SEBI are best placed to examine such matters, and the role of courts should be limited to instances where there is a clear regulatory gap. He further notes that PILs were originally intended for governance and constitutional issues, and their extension to investor disputes risks burdening the judicial system while overlapping with regulatory oversight.