SC approves ₹5,000 crore payout from Sebi-Sahara fund to depositors

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the disbursal of Rs 5,000 crore of over Rs 24,000 crore deposited by Sahara Group with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India to repay dues of the depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi allowed an application filed by the Centre seeking allocation of the amount lying in the SEBI-SAHARA refund account for payment to the depositors.

The top court also extended the date from December 31, 2025 to December 31, 2026 for disbursal of Rs 5,000 crore to the depositors allocated in 2023.

The bench said the order was in line with the March 29, 2023 order where a similar application of the Centre was allowed for allocation of Rs 5,000 crore to repay dues of the depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies.

The amount of Rs 5,000 crore was directed to be transferred from the SEBI-Sahara Refund Account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies, which was asked to disburse it to genuine depositors upon scrutiny.

The bench said the transfer of the amount should be done within a week under the supervision of former Supreme Court judge R Subhash Reddy and in the manner as outlined in the court's March, 2023 order.

The Centre has filed an application in a PIL filed by one Pinak Pani Mohanty, who sought a direction to pay the amount to the depositors who invested in several chit fund companies and Sahara credit firms.

It said the total amount so far claimed by depositors is Rs 1,13,504.124 crore (by approximately 5.43 investors) and refunds have been issued to 26,25,090 genuine depositors totalling Rs 5,053.01 crore.

It has said 13,34,994 more investors have filed claims on the web portal, which are at different stages of scrutiny.

Total claim by these investors comes to Rs 27,849.95 crore and it is estimated that at the current rate, approximately 32 lakh more investors may file their claim by December 2026, the Centre has said in its application filed in the court.

In March 29, 2023, order the apex court directed that the entire disbursement process would be monitored by Reddy with the assistance of senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal, who was appointed amicus curiae to assist the judge and the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies.

The Centre sought money from the SEBI-Sahara escrow account that was setup after the top court in August 2012 directed two Sahara firms -- Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Limited and Sahara Housing India Corporation Limited -- to refund the money to investors.