SC stays proceedings on Sahara group & Subrata Roy's petition

Sebi accused the group and its promoter of making 'mockery' of apex court's order which had directed them to deposit Rs 24,000 crore to the market regulator

The Supreme Court today stayed proceedings on pleas filed by Sahara group and its chief Subrata Roy against refunding Rs 24,000 crore to investors and attachment of their properties after the SEBI accused them of approaching different forums for delaying the process.

A bench comprising by Justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar also issued notice to them on SEBI's plea seeking transfer of all cases filed by them in Securities Appellate Tribunal and Allahabad High Court to Supreme Court.

During the hearing, the market regulator accused the group and its promoter of making "mockery" of apex court's order which had directed them to deposit Rs 24,000 crore to SEBI which would refund the money to over three crore investors.

Senior Advocate Arvind Dattar, appearing for SEBI, submitted that "shocking things" are in CD which was supplied by Sahara Group on investors who had put in their money in its two companies--Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIREC) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHIC).

He said although names of around 6,000 Kalawatis are not there as reported in media but there are 1,433 Anirudh Singhs there in the list whom the group claimed to have refunded money 34 times.

Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani and advocate Keshav Mohan, appearing for Sahara group, on the other hand, submitted that Sebi is wasting their time and also said that there is serious atmosphere of prejudice prevalent against it as SEBI is leaking information to media on investors.

The bench, however, said that every case is discussed in media and "We do not get prejudiced by such reports".