  Sebi sought a direction from the court to Sahara group chief Subrata Roy to deposit his passport but it was vehemently opposed by his counsel C A Sundaram. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday gave two Sahara companies and group chief Subrata Roy a week to reply to a contempt petition filed by market regulator Sebi, which said they had disobeyed every single line of the August 31, 2012 judgment, ordering them to refund Rs 24,000 crore collected from investors irregularly. The court on August 31 last year had directed Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHICL) to refund within three months Rs 24,029 crore collected between 2008 and 2011 from over 2.96 crore investors. Complaining before a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar about the companies' non-cooperation and tactics to mislead the market regulator, Sebi's counsel Arvind Datar said, "We have ordered attachment of properties, which were allegedly bought with the money collected from nearly three crore investors. Now, they say they have already sold off these properties and paid back the money to the investors. They are not giving the title deeds, which are needed for their auction. Our case is that they have not obeyed a single line of the August 31 judgment of the Supreme Court. They must respect some order somewhere." The bench took a strong view of it and said, "Sebi need not go after them to give details of the investors. They have to deposit the money and then substantiate the identity of each investor. Whatever amount the companies fail to account for, that much will be given to the government." Taking exception to repeated petitions before Security Appellate Tribunal and Allahabad High Court by the Sahara firms, the bench said, "They (SIRECL and SHICL) will have to pay. Identification of investors is their problem. If details of investors are given, it is well and good. Otherwise, they will take you round every bend for years and it will be a never ending exercise. You refund the money to the government if they do not give details of investors."It added, "How did the matter go from Sebi to the Allahabad High Court? You are manipulating court proceedings. There are directors who are common to the companies and who are aware of our judgment. How did one of you go to the high court? It is shocking." Advocates Gaurav Kejriwal and Keshav Mohan said the two companies had provided 127 truckloads of documents containing details of each and every investor and the mode of refund made to them. But the court questioned why they made the refunds on their own when it was directed to be done through Sebi. Sebi sought a direction from the court to Sahara group chief Subrata Roy to deposit his passport but it was vehemently opposed by his counsel C A Sundaram. The bench said, "We cannot make the Sebi application inf ructuous. Either you make a statement on behalf of your client that he will not leave the country otherwise we will restrain you from going abroad." However, Sundaram assured the court that his client would within a week file reply to Sebi's petition seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the Sahara firms. The court posted the matter for further hearing on May 2. On December 5, the court had relaxed the November 31 deadline for the two companies after they deposited Rs 5,120 crore with Sebi and promised to abide by the order directing them to deposit Rs 10,000 crore by January first week and the balance by February first week. On February 27, the bench refused to give any more relief to the companies on learning that they had not honoured the December 5 order.  via Business - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHpxDYG1Be52yIlUxI6BM4vPz7dJA&url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/SC-gives-two-Sahara-companies-Roy-1-week/articleshow/19687277.cms | |||
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Monday, 22 April 2013
SC gives two Sahara companies, Roy 1 week - Times of India
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The reason is that the SEBI is no more an autonomous body that protects the interests of investors and companies. I feel SEBI should support to verify all the documents that sahara had furnished previously. There should be proper channel from which information should flow, for all sensitive matters it should flow some more checks before landing to person seeking it.
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