New Delhi, Sept 5 (Representative) The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Sahara Group to apprise it of unencumbered properties which can be sold to realise Rs 10,000 crore.The amount has to be deposited in the SEBI-Sahara refund account for returning investors’ money. A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice M M Sundresh and Justice Bela M Trivedi said some practical solution for refunding the investors’ money has to be found by the court as the issue has been pending for more than a decade. The Supreme Court had on August 31, 2012, directed that Sahara Group firms – Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd (SHICL) – would refund the amount collected from individual investors or group of investors, with interest of 15 per cent per annum to SEBI from the date of receipt of the subscription amount till the date of repayment within three months. “This matter cannot go on and on. It has been more than 10 years since the court directed a deposit of Rs 25,000 crore. We have to find some practical solution to make headway as the company has only deposited around Rs 15,000 crore till now,” the bench said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Sahara Group, said the company will submit a roadmap for depositing the balance amount.Sibal said Sahara Group will submit some scheme for depositing the pending amount of Rs 10,000 crore. Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for SEBI, said after the demise of Subrata Roy in 2023, no one knows who heads the company and how it is going to deposit the money in compliance with the court’s order. The Court asked the Sahara Group to provide information about the current organisational structure including names of directors and the shareholders to the court. The Court said it would first deal with the question of the sale of properties and then it would deal with the question of refund of money to the investors. “We will peruse the roadmap submitted by Mr Sibal and also the previous roadmaps, which have been given in this court,” the bench said. “We want a list of all the encumbered and unencumbered properties of the Group except for Aamby Valley so that necessary directions can be passed on them,” the bench said.
The bench asked senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, who has been appointed as amicus curiae in the matter, to start his submission tomorrow. The Apex court clarified that there is no embargo on the Sahara Group to sell its properties for depositing around Rs 10,000 crore in the SEBI-Sahara refund account for returning investors’ money.“The only thing was that it should not be sold below the circle rate and if it is to be sold below the circle rate, then prior permission of the court is to be sought,” The bench said. In November 2023, Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy, who was earlier ordered to be taken into custody by the court, passed away at a private hospital in Mumbai.Earlier, SEBI told the court that in terms of the 2012 order of the Apex court, Sahara firms have till date deposited Rs 15,455.70 crore which has been invested in fixed deposits of various nationalised banks as of September 30, 2020.The total amount along with interest earned in SEBI-Sahara refund account is Rs 22,589.01 crore. SEBI said the Sahara Group chief and his firms SIRECL and SHICL are in “gross violation” of various orders passed by the court regarding the deposit of “entire monies” collected along with the interest. The market regulator said out of the total outstanding principal liability of Rs 25,781.32 crore, SEBI has realised only Rs 15,455.70 crore from the Saharas and from the sale of properties of the group. The balance amount of Rs 10,325.62 crore (principal amount) is still to be paid by Sahara Group.SEBI told the court that as of September 30, 2020, the total net liability of Saharas was Rs 62,602.90 crore taking into consideration interest at Rs 15 per cent as per the terms of the court directions passed on August 31, 2012.