The Supreme Court of India has asked the Sahara group to deposit £30 million more with market regulator Sebi by September 16 for continuation of group head Subrata Roy's bail over and above the £30 million it had deposited with the regulator. With this payment, the Sahara group's total deposit with Sebi has crossed £1 billion. But it still has to pay £1.40 billion, according to the SC judgment as principal amount. Repeated flouting of deadlines to pay up had landed Roy and two directors of the group in jail. They were granted interim bail on the condition of depositing £500 million in cash and furnishing a bank guarantee of £500 million.
Appearing for the Sahara group, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the cash component of the bail condition had been met as promised and the group would soon be able to provide a bank guarantee. The argument was meant to convince the court about the bonafides of the group and to request it to confirm bail for Roy and the two directors.
A bench said payment of bail bond amount was not a guarantee for Roy's freedom as the group was still far away from paying up the £ 2.40 billion principal liability, which the SC in one of its judgments quantified with interest to be Rs £3.60 billion. "We are getting tired of recovering the outstanding dues from you. At this rate (£20-30 million at a time every three months), you will take 10 years to pay up the principal amount. You have said on affidavit that you have landed property worth £18.7 billion. Why are you not selling them and depositing the entire amount?" the bench asked. Sibal said the value mentioned was reflective of the price the lands would command after development. However, he promised that the Sahara group would pay up the entire principal amount in the next 18 months. "It will not take more than one-and-a-half years. The group will pay up £2.47 billion in the next one-and-a-half years," he said.
The bench asked Sebi about the e-auction of Sahara properties. Senior advocate Arvind Datar said of 58 properties, eight were sold and fetched £19.5 million, which had been put in the SC-created Sahara-Sebi account.
