SC judge Chandran recuses from hearing plea seeking probe into U.S. short seller’s allegations against Vedanta

Supreme Court Judge Justice K. Vinod Chandran on Monday (September 8, 2025), on Monday (September 8, 2025), hearing a petition to give directions to the authorities to investigate the allegations made by American small seller Viceroy Research, said that billionaire Anil Aggarwal’s mining groups were “economically unstable” and took serious risks to the creditors.

Focusing on the recurrence of Justice Chandran, the Chief Justice of India, Bra Gavai and Atul Chandra, postponed the petition filed by Advocate Shakti Bhatia in the bench.

Mr. Bhatia said in his argument that he independently confirmed parts of the Viceroy reports, especially about the unannounced related-party transactions, by reviewing the MCA21 filing, SEBI discloser and the registrar of the company records.

The petition presented that in some high-value transactions, counterparts were neither declared as parties concerned nor submitted to shareholder approval.

Viceroy Research released a report charging billionaire Agarwal’s mining group as “economically unstable” and taking a serious risk for creditors, allegations are called “selective misinformation and baseless” aimed at defaming the group.

The Viceroy had said that this Vedanta was shortening the loan pile of resources, the original company and the owner of the majority of the Mumbai-list Vedanta Limited, as it had released the 85-foot report.

Shorting loan, also known as a small sale of bonds, is a trading strategy where an investor benefits from the fall in the price of bonds or other debt devices. This involves borrowing bonds, selling it at the existing market price, and then buying it back at a potentially low price to return to the lender, putting the difference in the pocket as a profit.

Calling Vedanta Resource Limited (VRL) a “heavy indebted parent”, the Viceroy said, “The entire group structure is economically unstable, operated operating in operationally, and creates a serious, under-altitude risk for creditors”.