The Supreme Court on Tuesday said there is no prohibition on the Sahara group selling its properties to deposit around Rs 10,000 crore in the SEBI Sahara Refund Account for repayment of investors’ money.
In a set of directions dated August 31, 2012, the top court had directed that the Sahara group companies – SIRECL and SHICL – shall repay the amounts collected from individual investors or groups of investors plus 15 per cent interest per annum to SEBI from the date of receipt of subscription amount to the date of repayment within three months.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, M Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi expressed displeasure over the Sahara group’s failure to deposit the amount as directed by the court. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Sahara group, said the company was not allowed to sell its properties. He also said that no one had come forward wanting to buy the properties as there was a ban on sale.
“There is no ban on the Sahara group selling its properties to deposit the remaining Rs 10,000 crore out of the Rs 25,000 crore ordered by the court. The only point was it should not be sold below the circle rate and if it is to be sold below the circle rate then the prior permission of the court has to be taken,” the court told Sibal.
It said more than ten years passed and the Sahara group had not complied with the court’s order.
“SEBI is demanding around Rs 10,000. You have to deposit it. We want a clear plan so that the property can be sold transparently. We will also involve SEBI in this process,” the court added.
Justice Khanna pointed out to Sibal that it was neither in the interest of SEBI nor the Sahara group to sell properties below the circle value and that there were enough buyers in the market if unencumbered properties were put up for sale.
“It is not correct to say that you have not been given fair chances to sell the properties. You have been given enough chances by this court to sell your properties,” the court said.
Senior advocate Pratap Venugopal, appearing for SEBI, said that not all the properties were encumbered and it was completely unclear when the company would pay the remaining amount.
The court asked Sibal to present a plan on how the group plans to deposit the remaining amount of Rs 10,000 crore and which properties can be sold to get the amount.
“There is a decree against you (Sahara Group) that you have to deposit Rs 25,000 crore, which you have not done despite having ample opportunity,” the court said.
Sibal asked the court to give the company some time to submit a plan for depositing the money, citing that it had tried to sell many properties in the past, including the Aamby Valley project, but all efforts failed as no buyer came forward.
“Let us submit a plan. The court can change it if it does not find it appropriate, but let us submit it,” Sibal said during the day-long hearing.
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