Sahara has moved the Supreme Court and claimed that SEBI seeking a Rs 62,600 crore deposit from it is a clear case of contempt of court and to cause public outrage against Sahara. Sahara India Pariwar, filed a contempt petition in the Hon'ble Supreme Court against SEBI and prayed to the apex court to punish the concerned officials in SEBI for its conduct.
This comes after markets regulator SEBI filed a petition with the Supreme Court to direct Sahara India’s chief Subrata Roy to pay up Rs 62,600 crore (including interest) due to investors. It also asked for his parole to be cancelled and be taken into custody if he fails to pay.
This is up from Rs 25,700 crore that the group’s chief was ordered to pay in 2012.
Sahara claims SEBI's application seeking deposit of Rs. 62,602 crore by Sahara is absolutely wrong and SEBI has done contempt of court. Sahara in its petition has accused that, to mislead the apex Court and to cause public outrage against Sahara, SEBI has filled a baseless and unfounded application.
Sahara says that the apex court in its order dated February 6, 2017, had directed that it is concerned with the principal amount and the issue of interest shall be adverted to later.
Sahara has alleged in its petition SEBI has developed certain vested interests to “evade the verification exercise on flimsy pretexts”.
Sahara claims that Rs 22,500 crore is currently lying in the SEBI-Sahara Refund Account against the principal amount of Rs 24029.73 crores meaning Sahara is supposed to deposit only Rs. 1,529 crore towards principal amount.
“The only purpose of SEBI's application is to create prejudice and to ensure deterioration of public confidence in the entire Sahara group. It is really not expected from such responsible and respected institution,” Sahara said.
It added that SEBI, after giving four rounds of advertisements in 152 newspapers in last 8 years across the country, received total 19,532 claims and has repaid only Rs 107 crore to investors.
“In its last advertisement that was published in April 2018, SEBI made it clear that it would not entertain any further claim received after July 2018. It means that for SEBI there is no more claimant at all. It is a typical case of double payment,” the company said.
Sahara has maintained that as per the directives of the Supreme Court, this amount of Rs. 22,500 Crore will eventually come back to Sahara after due verification.
“For more than eight years have passed and yet SEBI has not conducted the exercise of verification of 3.03 crores investors and refund, which is important for the interest of the investors and resolution on SEBI-Sahara dispute. Instead SEBI lacks the intention to resolve the issue and rather is of perpetuating it by attempting to circumvent the compliance of the directions passed by the Court,” the petition cares.
Sahara alleges that SEBI was required to verify the repayment for which the Indian Postal Department had developed a mechanism at the instance of SEBI, but SEBI abandoned the proposal in March 2013.