Viceroy rebuts ex-CJI on Vedanta report

Vedanta has consistently denied Viceroy's allegations, terming the accusations baseless

- Dipali Banka & Neha Joshi

US-based short-seller Viceroy Research has disputed former Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud's legal opinion on its allegations of financial misconduct and misrepresentation against Vedanta Group.

Viceroy argued that Chandrachud's legal opinion did not answer questions raised on dividend payments and alleged financial mismanagement at the mining and minerals conglomerate. Justice Chandrachud's opinion "fails to refute, investigate, or even engage with a single substantive financial allegation in our reports," the short-seller said in a report on Monday, 21 July, its eighth note on Vedanta in 13 days.

Vedanta has called Viceroy's allegations baseless.

Justice Chandrachud in his legal opinion to Vedanta, which was made public on Friday, said Viceroy's first report on billionaire Anil Agarwal's group, published on 9 July, lacked credibility, and the researchers behind the report had "dubious credentials." He said he relied on information shared by Vedanta to arrive at this opinion since Viceroy's website had no information in this regard.