A day after being pulled up by the Supreme Court, the Sahara Group's two real estate companies Tuesday sought more time to furnish the details of the refund of the investors' money it had mopped up through optionally fully-convertible debentures (OFCD).
As senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam appearing for the Sahara Group's companies sought more time till lunch break to furnish the details, the apex court's bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir adjourned the hearing for Wednesday.
Gopal Subramaniam told the court that the group needed more time to go through the requisite documents to furnish the details of the refund of the investors' money it has to make in pursuance of the apex court's direction. The Supreme Court Monday lashed out at the Sahara group's real estate companies, saying their intentions are "shady" in the matter of returning the investors' money mopped up through debentures and had given the firms seven days to pay up.
"You have no intention of returning (the investors' money). Your intentions are shady," said the apex court bench of the chief justice, Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice J. Chelameswar. The Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation had challenged in the court an order issued by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).
The Sahara real estate companies have challenged the SAT order which rejected their plea to direct its registrar to accept a pay order of Rs.5,120 crore. The pay order was meant to be deposited with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) by Nov 30 for the refund to investors.
The court Aug 31 directed the companies to return to investors Rs.17,400 crore with 15 percent interest that they had collected through optionally fully convertible debentures in 2008 and 2009.