The Sahara Group on Monday moved the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against the refusal of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to accept its documents after a deadline for submission set by the Supreme Court.
The group wants Sebi to extend the deadline to January 31.
The Supreme Court had in August asked two Sahara Group companies — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd — to refund around Rs24,000 crore they had collected from investors through optionally fully convertible
debentures.
The companies were to submit all documents with details of the investors within 10 days to Sebi, which was put in charge of the refund process.
Sahara reportedly sent over 30 crore documents containing details of its three crore investors. The regulator, however, refused to accept the consignment as it came after the submission deadline of September 10 set by the Supreme Court.
Sebi has also filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court for violation of its orders by Sahara.
Counsel for Sahara argued that Sebi was in the position of an entity entrusted to execute the Supreme Court order, which also meant that it had the power to extend the time limit for doing so.
Lawyers for Sebi refuted Sahara’s contention and questioned whether the appeal could be admitted by the tribunal in the first place.
Also, Sahara has not formally asked the regulator for an extension before filing this appeal with the SAT.
The tribunal expressed the view that Sebi should accept the documents keeping in mind the interests of investors whose refunds depend on them but gave the regulator two weeks to file a statement explaining its objections on the matter and one more week for Sahara to file a rejoinder to that statement.
The tribunal will consider submissions from both sides and hear the case next on December 20.
