Sunday, May 5, 2013

Sahara Scam: Supreme Court pulls up Sahara for ‘manipulating courts’

Censuring Sahara Group and its promoter Subrata Roy for "manipulating" courts instead of "remedying their mistakes", the Supreme Court on Monday asked why Roy and two other directors should not be detained for their failure to refund Rs 24,000 crore to investors.

A bench led by Justice KS Radhakrishnan also pulled up the group for not responding to its contempt notice to show cause why action should not be initiated for their alleged breach of orders on refunding the money to investors and depositing all required documents with Sebi for verification of investors and payments.

"Are you supposed to sit and relax when notice is issued to you? We think you are trying to make the case an endless exercise," said the bench, giving Sahara a week's time to file replies, both to Sebi's contempt petition and another plea seeking their detention. Sebi has sought detention of Roy and the two directors, Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey, in view of their "open, continued and consistent defiance" of its directive on refund of money.

In August 2011, the court had asked two Sahara firms — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHICL) — to refund Rs 24,000 crore raised from investors through "illegally" raised optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) by November 30 last year.

The bench said it was "very strange" that Sahara had been seeking extension of time and other relief from various forums although the SC order had attained finality. "What has been happening? You are filing appeals after appeals. Why did you move the Allahabad High Court against Sebi's attachment order? How can you go the HC? You are manipulating courts. Attempts are made to overreach orders of this court. We are surprised about what you are doing. We will take it seriously," cautioned the bench.

The bench also discarded an argument by Sahara's counsel that they were compelled to approach HC and SAT since Sebi had gone beyond the scope of the SC order by passing certain orders.
Courtesy:
Utkarsh Anand : New Delhi, Tue Apr 23 2013, 00:48 hrs
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/supreme-court-pulls-up-sahara-for--manipulating-courts-/1106231/0

2 comments:

  1. 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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  2. only one question :- Whether Depositors will get Payment or Not ?

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