Sebi disposes of proceedings against Onelife Cap as it withdraws application to be Sahara MF sponsor

Markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday disposed of proceedings against Onelife Capital Advisors after it withdrew application to become Sahara Mutual Fund's sponsor.

Sebi issued a show cause notice to Onelife, asking why its application, filed in May 2018 to become Sahara Mutual Fund's sponsor, should not be rejected, and had alleged the company was in non-compliance to various mutual fund regulations.

After several submissions and hearings, Onelife eventually on December 31, 2019 wrote to Sebi to withdraw its application.

"As the application to act as a Sponsor of Sahara Mutual Fund has been decided to be withdrawn and the same has been accepted by Sebi, the extant proceedings becomes infructuous," the regulator said in its order.

In July 2015, Sebi had cancelled Sahara Mutual Fund's registration saying it was no longer "fit and proper" to carry out the business and ordered transfer of its operations to another fund house. It had also directed cancellation of Sahara MF's registration on expiry of a six-month period.

Later in April 2018, Sebi had directed Sahara Mutual Fund to wind up all its schemes except Sahara Tax Gain Fund, which was permitted to continue till July 27, 2018.

Prior to the Sebi's order, Onelife had approached Sebi in March 2018 seeking to acquire Sahara Asset Management Company and become sponsor of Sahara Mutual Fund, but the regulator rejected the application citing non-compliance of the acquirer to mutual fund regulations.

Subsequently, Onelife and Sahara AMC had approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal, which had asked them to submit a fresh application with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Onelife filed this application in May 2018.