SC: SEBI to ascertain genuineness of Sahara's investors

The SEBI should come out with a mechanism to verify the genuineness of investors, who had invested in the Sahara Group, and start refunding money to them, the Supreme Court said today.
A bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar also sought an affidavit detailing their assets from Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd (SIREC) and Sahara India Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHIC), the two companies in which the investors had put in their money, and are facing property attachment proceedings in the case.
The court said that Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) should start making payments to the investors whose genuineness had been verified. The bench added that if any investor is not found to be genuine, the same must be put to Sahara Group for verification.

The court has fixed July 17 for hearing on SEBI's plea for initiating contempt proceedings against the two companies, its directors, and Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy for not obeying its August 31 last year orders.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Sahara's advocate Keshav Mohan said that during the hearing, they also pointed out that modalities for such a verification process needs to be worked out for implementation of the order.
On May 2, the apex court had stayed the proceedings on pleas filed by Sahara Group and Roy in the tribunal and the high court.

Earlier, the bench had accused Sahara Group and Roy of "manipulating courts" by approaching different forums for relief.

Sahara Group and the market regulator, SEBI, are locked in legal dispute over the refunding of Rs 24,000 crore by its two companies--SIREC and SHIC--to over three crore investors.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had dismissed Sahara's plea for more time to refund the amount.
SIREC and SHIC along with Roy are facing contempt proceedings in the apex court which had on February 6 allowed SEBI to freeze accounts and seize properties of its two companies for defying court orders by not refunding the money to the investors.