Mumbai: The Securities Appellate Tribunal is likely to hear Sahara chief Subrata Roy's plea in May against market regulator Sebi's attachment order of his bank accounts and other assets, along with those of two group firms and their top executives. Four petitions have been filed against Sebi, namely by Sahara chief Subrata Roy himself, Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL), Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd (SIRECL), and Ashok Roy Chaudhary and others.
After taking up the petition for its "preliminary hearing", the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) had posted the matter to April 20 for further discussion. However, the matter has not been listed by SAT in its April 20 'cause list' and it is now understood to have been posted for May.
The petitions are related to a high-profile case involving a refund of over Rs 24,000 crore raised through "various illegalities" by two Sahara companies. The petitions have challenged Sebi's February 13 order attaching bank accounts, investments and other assets of the two companies and their four top executives, including Roy, to eventually sell them for recovering required funds for the investor refund as per a Supreme Court order.
In the meantime, Sebi passed another order in this case on March 26, wherein it summoned Roy and three other top executives for personal appearance on April 10 after submitting details of their personal and company assets to ascertain terms for the sale of those assets. Roy and others appeared before Sebi's whole-time member Prashant Saran at the market regulator's headquarters here on April 10, wherein they were asked about their asset details.
As per the Supreme Court order, Sebi has been asked to facilitate the refund of more than Rs 24,000 crore to over three crore bondholders after verifying their genuineness. After expiry of the court-set deadline for the refund, Sebi had issued attachment orders.
Sahara has questioned Sebi's action for attaching Roy's property, saying that neither he was issued a show-cause notice nor did Sebi follow procedure of securing an enabling order from a judicial magistrate. Countering Sahara's claims, Sebi has sought dismissal of the plea, saying that the Supreme Court order in the case was self-explanatory and executive in nature and Saharas had been given many occasions to present their case. In the meantime, Sebi has also approached the Supreme Court seeking orders for detention of Subrata Roy and this plea will come up for hearing later in April.
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