The Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction on Tuesday with Sahara India's inability to deposit the remaining Rs 10,000 crore out of the Rs 25,000 crore ordered by the top court in 2012.
The court received information that the capital markets regulator currently holds approximately Rs 15,000 crore in the SEBI-Sahara Fund. "There is complete ambiguity about the rest of the amount," the court was told.
"More than 10 years have passed, and you still haven't deposited the money," a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Bela Trivedi and MM Sundresh told Sahara. "SEBI is seeking the remaining Rs 10,000 crore. How will you muster the remaining Rs 10,000 crore?"
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented Sahara, told the court that the company did not have a fair opportunity to sell its properties to cover the shortfall and also mentioned that no one wants to touch its properties.
In response, the court said it was incorrect to claim that Sahara did not receive a fair opportunity to sell the properties. "You have been given enough chances," the court said.
The court said that there is no embargo on Sahara family's asset sale.
Consequently, the court directed Sahara to list the properties it can sell to pay off the remaining Rs 10,000 crore. In response, Sahara said it would give the court a list of properties by Sept. 5.
Interestingly, the court said SEBI alleged that a significant number of Sahara's depositors are fictitious. However, the court stated that it would look into this aspect once the entire amount of money is deposited in the SEBI-Sahara fund.
The case has been adjourned for the day and will be taken up again by the court on Wednesday.
In an August 2012 verdict, the top court had ordered two Sahara companies—Sahara India Real Estate Corp. and Sahara Housing Investment Corp.—to refund Rs 24,000 crore, along with 15% interest, to more than 2 crore small investors who had invested in their optionally fully convertible debentures between the years 2008 and 2011.
This order came after the regulator ruled that the funds were raised by the two firms in violation of its rules and regulations.
Sahara was eventually asked to deposit an estimated Rs 24,000 crore with SEBI for further refunds to investors, though the group has been maintaining that it had already refunded more than 95% of investors directly.
In 2020, SEBI filed a petition before the top court, pegging the amount that Sahara Group's two companies and Subrata Roy had to pay the regulator at Rs 62,000 crore.
Subrata Roy passed away in November last year. At the time, SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch had said that the case would continue even after the death of Roy, stating that the matter was about an entity's conduct and adding that it would continue regardless of whether an individual is there or not.
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