SC to hear Roy's plea for release tomorrow

Subrata Roy contends that his detention ordered by SC is illegal

A Supreme Court special bench of judges K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar might hear on Thursday the writ filed by Sahara chief Subrata Roy seeking his release from jail.

The case came up before the same bench, which heard the Rs 37,000-crore refund matter and sent Roy to jail, after Sahara counsel Ram Jethmalani mentioned it in the chief justice’s court in the morning.

The petition, a writ of habeas corpus, contends Roy’s detention is illegal and seeks his immediate release. Jethmalani said there were certain defects in the March 4 order sending Roy to jail and these need to be cured.

He explained the case was earlier mentioned before a three-member bench to spare the special bench an “embarrassment” of hearing a petition against its own order.

He added if the bench so desires, he was “willing to satisfy your lordships (of the defects)”. The bench said, “We will see if it embarrasses us. We will take it up tomorrow.”

In a briefing at the court, Sahara lawyers told reporters  they are challenging the “illegal detention” of Roy since he is neither an accused in the OFCD (optionally fully convertible debentures) refunds case, nor a director in the firms. The lawyers said Roy was meeting regularly with lawyers and financial consultants and working on the refund plan.

The lawyers said they were surprised the matter did not come up on March 11 as scheduled. “No new date has been given,” one of them said.

The special bench had earlier expressed unhappiness over the proposal of Sahara on the refund of investors’ money.

It had rejected Sahara's proposal offering to pay Rs 2,500 crore within three days and the rest of the amount in five instalments by the end of July 2015.