Sahara seeks review of SC order to refund Rs24,000-cr to investors
05 Oct 2012
Sahara India Parivar, which only last week agreed to pay all monies collected ''illegally'' from investors, today moved a review petition in the Supreme Court on the court's order directing it to refund the Rs24,000 crore its two real estate subsidiaries collected from investors through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs).
The Supreme Court had directed the two Sahara group firms - Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHIC) - to deposit over Rs24,000 crore collected through OFCDs with state-run banks (See: SC orders Sahara Group firms to refund Rs17,400 crore to investors).
The Sahara Group, while agreeing to refund the Rs24,000-crore over a 3-month period, however, had sought more time to sort out issues with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) (See: Sahara agrees to refund Rs24,000 crore to investors in 3 months)
The Supreme Court had also directed Sahara to give a list of all the investors to SEBI in the next 10 days. Sahara, however, has not submitted documents pertaining to investors as per the apex court's order.
The Supreme Court had, in August, reaffirmed a SEBI order, which had said the process under which the two unlisted units of the group raised funds had violated rules. The court had also directed the two group companies of Sahara to refund around Rs17,400 crore collected by way of OFCDs to the investors within three months, with 15 per cent interest thereon.
The review petition that challenges the apex court's 31 August order on 55 counts, also sought hearing of its review petition in an open court.
The Supreme Court, in its order had set a three-month deadline for the two firms to refund the money, beyond which market regulator SEBI had been authorized to attach properties and freeze bank accounts of the two Sahara group outfits.
The Supreme Court had asked Sahara to furnish all relevant documents to SEBI and had also appointed retired Justice B N Aggarwal to oversee the refund of the amount to investors as also the action taken by SEBI against the two Sahara group firms.
