Business
SC gives Sahara 18 months to pay up Rs.36,000 crore
New Delhi, June 19
The Supreme Court on Friday gave 18 months to Sahara to repay Rs.36,000
crore of the investors money which its two companies, SIRECL and SHFCL,
had collected in 2007-08.
The bench of Justice T.S.Thakur,
Justice Anil R.Dave and Justice A.K.Sikri however reiterated the court's
March 26, 2014 order saying that Sahara chief Subrata Roy and two
directors will only be released from Tihar jail, where they are in
judicial custody, after Rs.5,000 crore cash and a bank guarantee of like
amount is deposited.
The apex court had March 4 last year sent
Roy and group's two directors Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary
to custody for not complying with its orders of August 31, 2012 and
other subsequent orders to return investors money.
The court on
Friday also approved the format of the bank guarantee given to it by
Sahara, saying that in view of the total liability, Sahara "shall
deposit the balance outstanding amount within a period of 18 months
commencing from the date of their release from custody in nine
instalments".
"First eight installments shall be of Rs.3,000
crore payable every two months from the date of their release from
custody and last installment shall be of the remaining amount," the
court said in its order.
Pronouncing the judgment, Justice Sikri
said: "In the event of the default in payment of two instalments (not
necessarily consecutive) the bank guarantee shall be encashed by SEBI."
The
court further said that the bank guarantee would be encashable "in the
event of failure" of Sahara to "deposit the full amount outstanding
against them within a period of 18 months commencing from the date of
their release".
In another stringent condition, the court in its
directions said that in case Sahara "fails to deposit three installments
(not necessarily consecutive)", Roy and two other directors "shall
surrender back to custody and in case they fail to do so, they shall be
taken into custody and committed to jail".
Noting that "a large
amount remains to be deposited" by the Sahara, the court said: "We
direct the contemnors (Roy and two directors) to deposit their passports
in this court within 15 days from the date of this order or before
their release, whichever is earlier. They shall not leave the country
without prior permission of this court."
It further said that Roy
and two directors "shall keep police station Tilak Marg, New Delhi
informed and updated about their whereabouts every fortnight".
The
court said that it had released some of the Sahara properties to
facilitate it to raise the money to return to investors and allowed
Sahara to apply for "permission to sell any further property within 15
days from their release in order to enable them to raise funds for
deposit of the required amount".
However, the possibility of Roy
coming out of jail immediately has diminished as Kapil Sibal, appearing
for him, informed the court that the foreign bank that was standing as
guarantor has withdrawn following media reports on SEBI insisting on a
trigger point for encashing the bank guarantee. He said that they will
be arranging a fresh bank guarantee, for which efforts are on.
As
Sibal sought clarification as to when Roy and two other directors would
be released, the court said that they would be able to walk out of the
jail only after complying with the conditions of the March 26, 2014
order, adding it had made this position clear many times in the past.
At this, Sibal did not press the plea for their release on parole for six weeks.
He
also urged the court that the amount that has already been paid should
be adjusted against the principal amount as it would have a reduced
bearing on interest liability. The court asked Sibal to make an
application to that affect.
As Sibal urged the court to reduce
the amount of bank guarantee from Rs.5,000 crore to Rs.4,000 crore as
they were facing some difficulties in arranging it, Justice Thakur said
that if there was difficulty then the cash component could be increased
from Rs.5,000 crore to Rs.6,000 crore and bank guarantee reduced
accordingly.