The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed a plea by the Union government for allocation of Rs 5,000 crore allocation out of Rs 24,000 crore, deposited by Sahara group with SEBI, to pay back to the depositors.
A bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar directed that the amount should be disbursed to depositors duped by the Sahara group of cooperative societies and the entire process will be monitored by Justice R Subhash Reddy, a former judge of the top court.
“The manner and modalities for making the payment is to be worked out by the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies in consultation with Justice Reddy, and Gaurav Agarwal, advocate," the bench said.
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The bench passed the direction on the application filed by the government in a PIL by Pinak Mani Mohanty.
The bench further ordered, “Out of the total amount of Rs 24,979.67 Crores lying in the “Sahara-SEBI Refund Account”, Rs 5000 Crores be transferred to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies, who, in turn, shall disburse the same against the legitimate dues of the depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies."
The court clarified that money should be deposited to the bank account of the genuine depositors in the most transparent manner and on proper identification and on submitting proof of their deposits and proof of their claims.
The amount should be paid at the earliest, but not later than nine months and the balance amount be again transferred to the Sahara-Sebi refund account, it said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, argued the application, which the court said, "seems to be reasonable and in the larger public interest/interest of the genuine depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies."
The fund was created after the top court in August 2012 directed two Sahara firms — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing India Corporation Limited (SHICL) — to refund investors.