Refusing Sahara’s plea for six months’ time to sell some of its properties to raise the amount it owes investors, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the company to sell 13 of its properties and deposit ₹5092.64 crore in the SEBI-Sahara Refund Account by April 13, 2017.
The court, however, barred Sahara from selling any property belonging to Sahara India Financial Corporation Limited on a plea by the Reserve Bank of India. The central banker informed the court that there was a winding-up petition pending against this corporation.
Giving a narrow window to Sahara to redeem itself, a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and A.K. Sikri said the court “may think of extending the time” further for Sahara to raise the rest of the money if it happens to succeed in depositing the “substantial amount” of ₹5092.64 crore on or before April 13. “... otherwise appropriate direction shall be issued,” the order said.
The properties
The properties allowed to be sold include Sahara Hospital, Lucknow; Sahara India Sadan Shakespeare Sarani, Kolkata; land at Sohna Road, Gurgaon; land at Najafgarh, Delhi; Sahara City Homes at Indore; Sahara City Homes at Lucknow; Sahara City Homes at Coimbatore; Sahara States, Bhopal; Sahara City Homes at Guna; Sahara City Homes/land at Katni, M.P.; Sahara City Homes/land at Haridwar, Uttaranchal; Sahara City Homes/land at Pune, Maharashtra; land and building at Whitefield, Bengaluru.
Foolproof measure
On February 6, the court attached the group’s prized asset in Maharashtra — Aamby Valley property — as a foolproof measure to ensure the recovery of money.
It had also ordered Sahara to place on record a list of unencumbered properties to be put up for public auction to recover over ₹14,000 crore the group owed as principal sum towards its debt. SEBI has submitted that the total liability of Sahara is ₹36,326 crore.
Referring to the list, Sahara’s counsel and senior advocate Kapil Sibal submitted that a snap auction would see the properties sold at undervalued rates.
SEBI counsel and senior advocate Arvind Datar submitted that previous two attempts to e-auction some of these properties through SBI Capses, a subsidiary of the State Bank of India and the HDFC Bank — both agencies appointed by the Supreme Court — were unsuccessful.
Mr. Datar submitted that it was difficult to conduct an auction and fetch money and, therefore, Sahara itself should be directed to sell the properties and deposit the money with SEBI.
“A property worth ₹156 crore was sold at ₹47 crore... open land is very difficult to sell considering the present market scenario... Give us more time to sell the properties and raise the money on our own,Mr. Sibal pleaded to the court.
