NEW DELHI: Sahara chief Subrata Roy, behind bars for the last 14 months, may get out of jail next week as he told the Supreme Court on Friday that he had managed to raise sufficient cash and bank guarantee of Rs 5,000 crore to fulfill the bail condition.
The court had directed Roy on March 26 last year to deposit Rs 10,000 crore, Rs 5,000 crore in cash and the rest in the form of a bank guarantee with market regulator Sebi to get bail. The group has so far deposited around Rs 3,800 crore.
At the outset of the proceedings, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Roy, told the court that there was good news and elaborated that a scheduled bank had agreed to give a guarantee for Rs 5,000 crore and sufficient cash has been raised to fulfill the bail condition.
He, however, refused to reveal the bank’s name and details of the transaction from which money was raised.
Sibal placed a format of bank guarantee before a bench of Justices T S Thakur, A R Dave and A K Sikri, which approved it with minor changes. He said all formalities would be completed by May 12-13 and urged the court to list the case before the summer vacation so that an order for Roy’s release from Tihar Jail could be passed.
The bench said it would determine the total amount to be paid to investors by Sahara and would fix a timeframe for depositing the money with Sebi. The court said the bank guarantee be made in favour of Sebi, which would be allowed to encash it in case Sahara failed to honour the timeframe.
Sibal also pleaded that Sahara be allowed to use surplus cash for paying salary to its staff and meet other corporate liabilities. The bench agreed to consider the issue and said it would pass an appropriate order on May 14.
Sahara advocate Gautam Avasthi said the court has approved the draft of the bank guarantee that Sahara has to furnish. He also said the court appreciated that, in view of freezing of assets of Sahara Group companies, it may not be possible for them to meet their liabilities towards salaries, wages, statutory liabilities and other corporate liabilities.
Therefore, the court observed that it may be necessary to permit Sahara to utilize assets to meet these liabilities after meeting the liabilities contained in the order dated March 26, 2014, which has stated that Sahara has to deposit Rs 10,000 crore with Sebi. However, the final call on this will be taken by the SC on Thursday.
TOI | May 9, 2015
Contact Lawyers In India : https://lawintellectindia.com/contact-us/