An advocate has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to submit a report concerning the stock market crash after the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced, Live Law reported on Friday.

On June 4, when votes were counted, stock markets plunged as it became clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party would not win the majority on its own and would need the support of allies to retain power.

The Sensex fell 4,389.73 points or 5.74% at 72,079.05, and the Nifty 50 fell 1,379.40 points or 5.93% at 21,884.50 at closing. The stocks of Adani Group companies were particularly hit.

The current application was filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari. He submitted the plea as an interlocutory application in the writ petition regarding allegations by United States-based firm Hindenburg Research that the Adani Group was involved in accounting fraud and improper use of tax havens.

In March last year, the Supreme Court constituted a six-member expert committee to review regulatory mechanisms. In January, the top court directed the Centre and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to consider the recommendations of the expert committee to strengthen the regulatory framework in order to protect the interests of investors.

Tiwari said in the current petition that it remained unclear whether the market regulator had completed its pending investigations in the Adani-Hindenburg case, adding that ordinary citizens had a right to know.

“The result of the investigations made by SEBI [market regulator] in this respect shall be placed on record so that the things may not remain hidden and buried,” read the plea.

The application also noted that the court in the Adani-Hindenberg case had highlighted the need for a regulatory framework to protect investors. However, the stock market crash after the announcement of the general elections results showed that nothing had changed, Tiwari added.

“It is said that after announcements of exit polls in respect to the Lok Sabha 2024 results the share market went high, but when the actual results were announced the market crashed,” the application noted.

The Lok Sabha elections defied the predictions of exit polls, most of which had predicted that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance would get over 350 seats.

The results for the elections showed that the BJP’s final seat tally stood at 240, a significant fall from 2019 when it had clinched 303 seats. The overall tally of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance reached 292 seats. In the 2019 general elections, the alliance won in 353 constituencies.

Any party or alliance requires 272 seats in the 543-member Lower House to form a government at the Centre.

Allegations against BJP leaders

On Thursday, the Congress asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah gave “specific investment advice” ahead of the poll results, and alleged that they caused losses of Rs 30 lakh crore to investors.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Gandhi called for an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into “this biggest-ever stock market scam”.

On May 19, Modi had said in an interview to NDTV that the stock market would rise sharply in the week around the Lok Sabha election. “On June 4, the day of the Lok Sabha election results, you will see…in that week, all the stock market programmers will get tired.”

Six days earlier, Shah had also told NDTV that the stock market would surge after June 4.

Gandhi on Thursday said that this was the first time that a prime minister had made such comments about the stock market. He claimed that Modi and Shah were “privy to data on actual election results” and had access to Intelligence Bureau reports.

Also read: Interview: Exit polls rigged by BJP for stock market scam, says Congress data chief