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On a day the three-month deadline ended for two Sahara group companies to refund Rs 24,000 crore to investors through market regulator Sebi, Sahara approached theSupreme Court on Friday with a Rs 5,126-crore offer as repay ment to investors and, in the process, prove its bonafides as manager of investor money.
Sahara contests Sebi's estimation of the refunda ble amount as Rs 24,000 crore, while arguing that the regulator could not have possibly reached any estimate as it was nei ther accepting the documented investor information being provided by the Sahara companies — Sah ara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing In vestment Corporation Ltd (SHICL) — nor accepting money being offered as refund to investors.
Sahara's rush to the apex court was triggered by Sebi's decision to write to 88 banks seeking account details of the companies and writing to secretaries of two states inquiring about the firms' moveable and immoveable assets.
The companies feared that Sebi was moving towards attaching their accounts and assets.
"Reading of the said letter in its entirety, it is clear that Sebi is taking steps towards attachment of assets/accounts on the basis that the appellants are in non-compliance of the August 31 judgment and that, as per the said judgment, the market regulator is entitled to attach /sell assets/accounts of the appellants," the Sahara companies said in their appeal filed through advocate Gaurav Kejriwal.
In the last hearing, SC had told Sebi to move against the Sahara companies as per law if they failed to comply with the August 31 judgment.
Senior advocate and former solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam on Friday mentioned the appeal by the Sahara companies before a bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice J Chelameswar and sought an urgent hearing on Friday afternoon.
The bench has scheduled the hearing on Monday for the petition, challenging the order of theSecurities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), which had refused to direct Sebi to accept the money and documents containing information about the investors as the matter was seized by the apex court. (Times of India)
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