New Delhi: The Union Ministry for Law and Justice could forward a summons from the US Securities and Exchange Commission to a sessions court in Ahmedabad, for it to be served on billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani at his address in the city, The Hindu reported.
According to the news report, the Union government confirmed this via an internal note to The Hindu.
“Under consideration is a request for service of summons received from the Central Authority USA, under the Hague Convention for Service of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters, 1965,” The Hindu report quoted the union government as saying in the note provided to the media house.
The note also said that the ministry had checked the documents and found them “to be in consonance” with the Hague Convention. This international treaty permits signatory countries to serve legal documents on individuals for cases filed abroad. The note added that “if approved”, the union ministry would forward the documents to the District and Sessions Court, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to be served on Adani.
It is unclear who the approving authority will be.
In November 21 last year, the US’ Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York charged Adani for concealing his alleged role in what they called a “massive bribery scheme” that involved promising approximately $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts. The Adani Group later denied the charges, calling them “baseless”. The case, however, is ongoing at the US district court.
Apart from allegations that SECI, the Solar Energy Corporation of India – a public sector enterprise – may have quoted power rates higher than market rates – which was why state distribution companies did not agree to enter into contracts with SECI but did so after bribes may have been paid – the US Attorney’s indictment suggests that SECI may have shared “internal documents” with some of the people accused in the case including Sagar Adani, nephew of Gautam Adani and CEO of Adani Green Energy Limited.
