Hearing on Sebi-Sahara legal tussle on May 17

The Sahara-Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) legal battle would soon draw to a close. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court heard the arguments of Sahara and Sebi counsels over the past three days and had adjourned the hearing to May 17.

According to lawyers, the arguments of both the sides are almost complete. “The concluding arguments of both sides will be made on May 17,” said Prashant Chandra, advocate for the Sahara group.

On November 24, Sebi had banned several Sahara group entities from raising money from the public for allegedly violating public issue norms.

Sahara India Real Estate and Sahara Housing Investment raised at least Rs 4,843 crore by issuing optionally fully convertible debentures to investors. Sebi guidelines on public issues prescribe eligibility criteria for accessing public money, mandate due diligence of the company and its promoters by merchant bankers, grading by credit rating agencies, and vetting of the draft red herring prospectus by the regulator against disclosures norms. Sebi said none of these norms were followed in the debenture issue.

Sahara group challenged the Sebi order, saying it was not a listed entity and Sebi did not have the jurisdiction to regulate it. Sebi argued the issuing of equity or debt instruments to more than 49 investors clearly came under its purview. In January, the decision on the case was hastened by the Supreme court, which directed the lower court to hear the case on a day-to day basis.

The Sebi order was stayed on December 13. This stay was lifted by the court on April 7, restricting the Sahara group from raising money.

On Friday, the court turned down a request by the Sahara group to recall an April 7 order, lifting a stay on the Sebi order. “The court did not grant the request,” Chandra said. Meanwhile, Sahara also filed a special leave petition with the Supreme Court against the vacation of the stay. This petition is likely to come up for hearing soon.

Sahara has since then, launched investment schemes under a cooperative society to continue money raising activity.