An August 31, 2012 judgement by the Supreme Court against Sahara India Real Estate Corp and Sahara Housing Invest Corp is likely to come up for review on Tuesday. The review petition was mentioned before Justice K S Radhakrishnan on Monday. A Sahara lawyer declined comment.
A bench comprising Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar had ordered the two companies to refund over Rs 24,029 crore raised by issue of Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures (OFCD) along with an interest of 15 per cent per annum. The firms were to submit the amount and the necessary supporting documents to Sebi within 10 days of the order. The regulator was to complete the refunds by November 30.
Since Sahara did not submit the necessary documents, Sebi filed a contempt petition with the Supreme court. On November 30, Sahara moved the Supreme Court seeking to submit a sum of Rs 5,120 crore. Sebi was not keen to accept this sum as it was just a fraction of the amount due when the case was decided. A bench headed by the Chief Justice directed Sebi to accept the deposit. It also directed Sahara to submit the remaining sum in two installments. The first installment was due on January 5.
The Sahara group is now claiming that it does not need to pay anything more as it has only Rs 2,620 crore outstanding to OFCD investors. It says that the additional Rs 2,500 crore is a buffer to cover any potential dispute or discrepancies in this calculation. Sahara is also said to have filed an affidavit explaining the calculations along in support of the review petition.
