The Securities Appellate Tribunal has posted for March 23 its final hearing on Sahara Chief Subrata Roy’s plea against SEBI’s attachment order on two Sahara Group firms. The final hearing will be held in Mumbai.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India had last month issued attachment orders on bank accounts and properties of two Sahara Group firms — Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd — and its senior executives, including Subrata Roy.
The order related to the Supreme Court’s direction for refund of over Rs 24,000 crore of investors’ money raised by these group firms. SEBI had issued the attachment order following the expiry of the apex court-set deadline for the refund. Roy had appealed to SAT against the attachment orders.
After hearing both the sides, the SAT Presiding Officer P.K Malhotra, on Tuesday said the matter would be taken up for disposal expeditiously, and posted the final hearing on March 23. He, however, refused to give any interim relief. During the hearing on Tuesday, the Sahara counsel sought interim relief for industrialist Subrata Roy Sahara, whose bank accounts had also been ordered to be frozen.
The counsel submitted that SAT should at least give interim relief by directing to de-freeze Roy’s accounts. However, the SEBI counsel argued that there was no need for interim relief in the case.
The apex court had passed its first order in this case on August 31 last year and the regulator was asked to facilitate the refund.