Supreme Court orders attachment of Sahara's Aamby Valley project

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday attached Sahara group`s Aamby Valley property in Pune for the recovery of Rs 14,799 crore that the group`s two companies involved in real estate have to pay investors.The property is worth Rs 39,000.

Sahara admitted before the court that it had to pay Rs 14,000 crore as principal money to Sebi and that had already paid Rs 11,000 crore.

The bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice A.K. Sikri also directed Sahara to submit a list of its properties which are free from any charges by February 20. It directed the next hearing of the matter on February 27.

Sahara in the meanwhile deposited Rs 600 crore as directed by the Centre by its November 28, 2016, order for continued parole of Subrata Roy and others.

The apex court had decided to hear the Sahara refund case on February 6 after Subrata Roy’s lawyer Kapil Sibal urged that this matter be advanced. Roy’s interim parole expires on Monday.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, which will hear the matter again on February 20, noted that out of the principal amount, the group has deposited around Rs 11,000 crore and it has to deposit over Rs 14,000 crore more.

The bench, also comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri, was told by SEBI counsel Pratap Venugopal that the interest on the principal amount till October 31, 2016 would lead to a liability of Rs 47,669 crore on the Sahara Group, which today deposited over Rs 600 crore in accordance with the January 12 order by which extension of time beyond February 6 was refused.

The apex court had said failure to pay the said amount would lead Sahara Group Chief Subrata Roy going back to jail.

The top court was not in agreement with Sahara's counsel senior advocate Kapil Sibal that the amount should be realised in accordance with the roadmap provided by the group, which suggested the deadline of July 2019 will be adhered to.

"No small token amounts," the bench observed, adding that the balance amount of over Rs 14,000 crore can be realised by public auction of Sahara's unencumbered properties which are free from litigations, mortgage and any charge.

"The fundamental question is that the court (Supreme Court) found that the money collected by you from XYZ etc was in violation of the rule," the bench observed while not accepting Sibal's plea that he should be given at least a minimum of two hours to explain that the apex court judgement against Sahara was "ex-facie erroneous".

"It's a question of a core verdict," the bench said, while referring to the August 2012 judgement by which the Sahara Group was asked to make refund to the investors.

In a major relief to Roy, the court on November 28, 2016 extended his interim bail and ordered him to pay Rs 600 crore to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) by February 6. During the hearing, Sibal proposed to the three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur, that Roy pay Rs 11,000 crore within a period of two-and-a-half years.

His parole was earlier extended till November 28 taking note of the deposit of Rs 200 crores made by him with SEBI in October, as a condition precedent for his release. The apex court had then granted four weeks’ custody parole to Roy to perform his mother’s last rites.

Roy was in Tihar jail since March 4, 2014, till his mother’s death in May 6, 2016, for not complying with the apex court’s orders in connection with a long dispute with the market regulator.

SEBI had alleged that Roy failed to comply with the 2012 SC order directing him to return investors more than Rs 20,000 crore with 15 percent interest that his two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and the Sahara Housing Finance Corp Ltd had raised through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2007 and 2008.

Sahara, once among India’s high-profile firms, has in the past made several failed attempts to raise the bail money using its prized overseas hotels that include the Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London. Sahara says it has paid more than 80 percent of the dues to share-holders, but SEBI has disputed that and said the company has not paid more than Rs 10,000 crores.