Rs. 5000 crores deposited by Sahara group allocated to repay depositor’s due within nine months from March 29, 2023: Supreme Court
On March 29, 2023, the Supreme Court bench allowed the interim application filed by the Central government seeking allocation of Rs. 5000 crores out of Rs. 24,979 crores. The amount was deposited by the Sahara group with the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) to repay the depositor’s due of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies. The bench hearing the case, Justice C.T. Ravikumar and Justice M.R. Shah, ordered to pay the amount at the earliest, “but not later than nine months from today (March 29).”
In this case, a total amount of Rs. 24,979.67 Crores was lying unutilized with the SEBI in “Sahara-SEBI Refund Account”, which was deposited according to the earlier direction issued by Supreme Court. The Learned Solicitor General, Shri Tushar Mehta said that “out of the aforesaid amount of Rs. 15,569.27 Crores deposited by Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Limited, Rs. 2253 Crores had been taken out from Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd. and deposited with SEBI on account of the dispute of Sahara Real Estate Limited.”
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Also, the corpus which was lying in the “Sahara-SEBI Refund Account” already includes the amount which belongs to the depositors of the aforesaid Sahara Group Cooperative Society Ltd. The Solicitor General also highlighted that on the aforesaid amount, there was no charge and/or attachment of any other agency. Due to a large number of continuing complaints against the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies and the amount lying unutilized also includes the number of depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies. If Rs. 5,000 Crores was transferred to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies and thereafter the same was disbursed against the legitimate dues of the depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies, it will be just, proper, and equitable.
On hearing the contentions, the Supreme Court stated that the disbursement should be supervised and monitored by Justice R. Subhash Reddy, Former Judge of the Supreme Court with the able assistance of Shri Gaurav Agarwal, learned Advocate, who was appointed as Amicus Curiae to assist Justice R. Subhash Reddy. The bench further added that “the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies in disbursing the amount to the genuine depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies.” Also, ordered that the amount be paid to the respective genuine depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies out of the aforesaid amount of Rs. 5,000 Crores at the earliest, but not later than nine months from today. The balance amount thereafter will be again transferred to the “Sahara-SEBI Refund Account” and the top Court disposed of the interim application.
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