The two-year-old legal battle between the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Sahara group is reaching a climax, as the vacation bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to take up the final hearing in the matter, according to people familiar with the development.
The apex court has nominated vacation benches that will take up specific matters, such as those of an urgent nature and involving public interest, when the court will be closed for summer vacation between May 14 (Monday) and July 1.
People quoted above said the Sahara-Sebi matter is expected to come up before the vacation bench towards the end of the month. “The court is expected to hear the petition on merits,” a lawyer said.
In January, while admitting an appeal by Sahara, the apex court had directed the companies to secure enough assets to cover liabilities towards investors in its optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs).
“We want the amount of the investors to be secured. You can also give a bank guarantee or list of assets of the company,” the Supreme Court bench had said. The Sahara Group had said it had sufficient assets to protect the interests of the investors. The group had earlier told the court it had filed an affidavit explaining that it will protect the interests of investors.
Chief Justice S H Kapadia who had been part of the bench that has been issuing directions since the Sahara case reached the apex court in early 2011, will not be present for the final hearing.
According to a Supreme Court notification, the first part of the vacation, up to May 29, will be manned by two division benches, the first comprising judges Deepak Verma and Sudhanshu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya and the second of B S Chauhan and Dipak Misra. Only a single bench comprising judges K S Radhakrishnan and Jagdish Singh Khehar will be in charge for the second part of the vacation, between May 30 and June 14.
The final part from June 15 will again have two benches (the first comprising judges H L Gokhale and Ranjana Desai; and Gyan Sudha Misra and J Chelameswar on the second).
The tussle with Sahara is among the last of the controversial cases taken up under previous Sebi chairman C B Bhave. Two other proceedings initiated under Bhave — against the promoters of the erstwhile Bank of Rajasthan and the MCX Stock Exchange — have recently seen closure. While the former was ended by a final order by Sebi whole-time member Prashant Saran, the latter issue was settled by the courts.
Two Sahara group firms — Sahara India Real Estate and Sahara Housing Investment Corp, moved the apex court in November last year after the Mumbai–based Securities Appellate Tribunal upheld an order by the market regulator in June, directing them to refund the money collected by issuing OFCDs along with 15 per cent interest.
