SAT dismisses deadline extension plea

Another appeal to direct Sebi to accept a pay order of Rs 5,120 cr for repaying it to investors was also rejected

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) on Thursday dismissed an appeal by the Sahara group that sought an extension to the Supreme Court-set deadline for submitting documents of investors, who had subscribed to its bond scheme, with the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

“Since the Supreme Court has already given a specific direction in the matter, the appeals before this Tribunal have become infructuous,” SAT said.

“In any case, since the time limit for submitting the documents to the board has been specified by the Supreme Court, any request for extension of such time should also be made before the apex court and not before this tribunal,” it added.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, on December 5 had given the two Sahara companies—Sahara Housing Investment Corp and Sahara India Real Estate Corp— 15 days for filing documents with the Sebi.

According to the August 31 judgment of the apex court, the deadline for filing of documents ended on September 10 and that for repayment to around 30 million depositors expired on November 30.

After Sahara failed to meet the September 10 deadline, Sebi has filed a contempt petition before the apext court. Sahara appealed before SAT seeking an extension of this deadline. While this appeal was pending, the group had approached SAT with another appeal to direct the market regulator to accept a pay order of Rs 5,120 crore for repaying the amount to

its optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) subscribers. This appeal, too, was dismissed by SAT as “premature and not maintainable”.

The apex court, in its December 5 order, has given the Sahara group companies time till February to refund to investors in two installments, the money raised through OFCDs.

According to Supreme Court directions, the two Sahara companies have to submit all information of investors with Sebi, so that the market regulator can ascertain the genuineness of the investors and refund the amount.