The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Sahara group a last opportunity to raise bail money to its chief Subrata Roy and two directors in jail since March 2014.
A Special Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur, Anil R. Dave and A.K. Sikri, at one point, said the court had lost its patience with Sahara's repeated assurances that they would sell their assets soon to pay security for securing bail.
The Bench stopped short of going ahead and appointing ‘court receivers’ to take over from Sahara and initiate sale deals in a “transparent” manner. But Sahara’s counsel and senior advocate Kapil Sibal prevailed over the court and requested to give his client “one last chance” to sell their assets and collect Rs. 6000 crore more required for bail security.
Mr. Sibal said the embattled group would find a buyer in the next two or three months. Agreeing, the Bench told Mr. Sibal to give an “outline of any proposed deal to be shared within a week with the SEBI and amicus curiae.”
However, the court declined a plea for extension of special facilities to Mr. Roy in Tihar Jail precincts to negotiate with buyers, but increased the time window to communicate with proposed buyers from two hours to five. Mr. Roy and his two directors have also been allowed two laptops for their use.
The court had asked 65-year-old Roy to pay a total Rs 10,000 crore to get bail.
During the hearing, the Sahara group blamed Mirach Capital for the failure of the second proposed deal for selling of offshore properties.
