Sahara gets a breather

The Supreme Court provided a breather to two Sahara group companies by giving them time till the first week of February to deposit Rs 24,000 crore in two installments with market regulator Sebi,which they had collected from investors.
Entertaining an appeal against Securities Appellate Tribunal refusing to accede to the requests of Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHICL), a bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices S S Nijjar and J Chelameswar allowed them 15 days’ time to deposit with Sebi documents containing information of investors to facilitate return of the invested amounts.
However, the bench warned that if the leniency shown by the court was not honoured, then Sebi would be free to initiate proceedings for attachment of their assets. The court said the deadline for compliance of the judgment was being extended to protect the interests of crores of investors.
The three-judge bench started proceedings with a series of questions to senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam: “Where is the Rs 24,000 crore? Whether you are going to deposit it with interest or not is the only question before the court. Why should we give even a minute more to you?’
The two companies, through their counsel Gaurav Kejriwal and Keshav Mohan, had brought Rs 5,120 crore in bank draft to the court to show their bona fides as managers of the investors' money. Subramaniam added that the companies had already returned a substantial part of the collected amount to investors and expressed willingness on behalf of his clients to pay up if something was found to be outstanding.
But Sebi’s counsel, senior advocate Arvind Datar, reminded the three-judge bench that they were in talks with Sebi for compliance of the August31 judgment. Datar’s arguments were brushed aside by the court and his persistence to put across Sebi’s stand was put down firmly by the bench.