SC modifies order, lifts curbs on Sahara chief Subrata Roy's foreign travel

The Supreme Court today modified its earlier order in the Sahara refund case and removed a restraint on Sahara chief Subrata Roy from leaving the country till the group handed over title deeds for a total of Rs20,000 crore to market regulator SEBI.

A Supreme Court bench of Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice J S Khehar had directed the group and its directors, including chief Subrata Roy Sahara, to submit the original title deals within three weeks, without which they were barred from leaing the country.

A bench has now considered an application by the group seeking modification in the order, after hearing a plea by Roy's counsel and senior advocate C A Sundaram.

Coming out of the judges' chamber, Sundaram said the bench had accepted the plea for allowing Roy to travel abroad.

Sahara had moved the apex court on 29 October claiming that there was a mistake in its 28 October order restraining Roy from leaving the country until the company handed over title deeds of its properties to SEBI.

It had submitted that that there was difference in the decision which was uploaded on the Supreme Court web site and the order passed in the open court.

The counsel had submitted that while passing the order, the apex court had said if documents were not handed over to the market regulator within three weeks only then would Roy be restrained from going abroad.

The bench had not specifically restricted the movement of Sahara chief from out of the country after assurances from Sahara counsel Sundaram.

The SC had opted for a milder direction, which would have come into play only if the group failed to submit the documents.

The SC had directed the Sahara group to furnish the title deeds along with the valuation report latest by 11 November.

The bench, however, was agitated at Sahara dilly-dallying on the refund issue. In fact, the bench had observed that Sahara was playing ''hide and seek'' and that the company and its officials could not be trusted any more.

The court also had made it clear that the company and its promoters have no ''escape'' from depositing the investors' money with the market regulator. It had also directed Sahara to also give valuation reports of properties to SEBI which would verify the worth of assets.