SEBI-Sahara Case: Supreme Court Seeks Company's Leadership Details To Expedite Refunds

The Supreme Court directed Sahara India Pariwar on Wednesday to furnish details of people at the helm of the company as it remarked that a practical solution needs to be figured out to deal with the issue of refund.

The court expressed concern over the fact that more than 10 years have passed since it had ordered Sahara to deposit nearly Rs 25,000 crore in order to refund investors their money. However, Sahara has only managed to deposit about Rs 15,000 crore as of now.

Appearing for SEBI, senior advocate Arvind Datar said that since the death of Subrata Roy last year, there has been a lack of clarity about who heads the company. As a result, the court has directed Sahara to furnish details regarding its present leadership along with the details of its shareholders.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Sahara's counsel informed the court that a scheme pertaining to what properties can be sold off to pay off its balance of Rs 10,000 crore will be given to the court. The top court said that it will take up the issue of refunding money to the investors in Thursday's hearing.

During Tuesday's hearing, the court had, in clear terms, clarified that there was no embargo on Sahara India's asset sale for paying off its dues.

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.