The Sahara group’s appeal against the order of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) will come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday, Nov 28. The Court will decided whether to grant the stay as the six-week deadline given by SAT to Sahara India Real Estate Corp and Sahara Housing Investment Corp to refund at least Rs.24,029 crore collected through issuing optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) along with an interest of 15 per cent, expires on Monday.
The companies have contested the order on its merits, arguing that being unlisted companies, they were governed solely by the central government. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which regulates listed companies, did not have jurisdiction over the unlisted ones that issued the debentures, the group said.
Sahara is also seeking a stay on the SAT order while the appeal is being heard. According to a media report, the group has written to the union ministry of corporate affairs to desist from taking any action against while the matter is sub-judice.
Meanwhile, the Sahara group has launched a retail venture titled Q-shop. “With the launch of its new revolutionary scheme in the retail sector under Sahara Q shop, Sahara India Pariwar is coming out with more than 800 household items and will gradually expand to almost 100,000 small franchisee outlets,” Sahara said in newspaper advertisements last week. The group also picked up a 42.5 per cent stake in Formula-1 venture now renamed Sahara Force India.
On October 18, SAT directed two Sahara group firms to refund a sum of Rs.24,029 crore to 29.6 million investors who had subscribed to their OFCDs. The tribunal had also given a deadline of six weeks to complete this unprecedented and massive refund operation.
“Both the appeals are dismissed and the impugned order upheld. The appellants in both the appeals shall now repay within six weeks from today the amount collected from the investors on the terms as set out by the whole-time member in the impugned order,” the tribunal had said in the order.
According to the affidavits filed by the companies, Sahara India Real Estate had an outstanding of Rs.17,656 crore to 22.1 million investors and Sahara Housing Invest Corp had an investor base of 7.5 million and an outstanding of Rs.6,373 crore as on August 31.
In June, SEBI had ordered refund of OFCD money, saying that it was raised without complying with the public issue norms laid down by SEBI.
