Supreme Court: Refusing to release Subrata Roy Sahara, the Sahara Chief, on parole, the 3-judge bench of TS Thakur, Anil R. Dave and Dr. A.K. Sikri, JJ said that there is no concrete proposal with Saharas for sale of the properties situated in India or abroad that may call for any negotiation by the Sahara Chief and that it is premature to make any arrangement to facilitate any such negotiations either by directing release of the Sahara Chief on parole or otherwise.
Rajeev Dhavan, appearing on behalf of the Saharas, had urged the Court to release Subrata Roy Sahara on account of him not keeping a good health and also meeting his nonagenarian and ailing mother who is in a fragile emotional state, apart from negotiating deals directly with the prospective purchasers of the offshore properties. Arvind P. Datar, the Counsl appearing for SEBI, had however, contended that neither there was any material on record to show that the Sahara Chief had any serious medical problem to justify his release on parole nor can his release on parole be justified on the ground for facilitating negotiations with the prospective purchasers as they had not disclosed the names of such prospective purchases and have also not presented any concrete proposal till date.
Not finding any justified ground for release of Subrata Roy Sahara on parole for negotiating the sales of the properties, the Court said that that if a situation arises in which negotiations become essential, this Court may consider passing orders to facilitate such negotiations. The Court allowed Sahara to sell, transfer or encumber 3 offshore properties subject to the condition that the amount received after repayment of outstanding load towards Bank of China will be deposited with SEBI for compliance with the bail order dated 26.03.2014 and the excess amount will be deposited in a separate account which will be utilised as per the Court’s orders. It was also directed that the remaining properties will not be sold, transferred or encumbered at at a price less than the estimated value of the said properties reduced at the most by 5% of such estimate. SEBI v. Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd., I.A. NOS. 8-9 & 10-12 OF 2014, decided on 22.07.2014