There is good news for lakhs of small investors of Sahara. The hope of getting their money in the coming days has increased. In fact, the Supreme Court today said that there is no restriction on the Sahara Group to sell its assets to deposit about Rs 10,000 crore in the SEBI-Sahara refund account to return the money to the investors. On August 1, 2012, the Supreme Court had directed that the Sahara Group companies – SIRECL and SHICL should return the amount deposited from the investors to SEBI with 15 percent annual interest. This interest will be payable from the date of deposit to the date of payment.
No restrictions on selling the property
The bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice MM Sundaresh and Justice Bela M Trivedi expressed displeasure over Sahara Group not depositing the amount as directed by the court. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Sahara Group, said that the company was not given a chance to sell its property. On this, the bench said that there is no restriction on Sahara Group to sell its property to deposit the remaining Rs 10,000 crore out of Rs 25,000 crore as per the court order. The court also said that the properties should not be sold at a price lower than the circle rate. Prior permission of the court will be necessary for selling at a price lower than the circle rate.
Investors started getting money
Investors who invested in Sahara have started getting money. Investors are investing in four cooperative societies affiliated with Sahara Group companies. In March last year, the Supreme Court had directed to transfer Rs 5,000 crore from the Sahara-SEBI refund account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS). The Ministry of Cooperation had launched a portal in July to collect valid claims from depositors of four cooperative societies of the Sahara Group – Sahara Credit Cooperative Society, Sahara Universal Multipurpose Society, Hamara India Credit Cooperative Society and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society.