New Delhi, February 25
In a jolt to the Sahara group, the Supreme Court today refused to grant any further relief to two of its companies which were supposed to have returned a whopping Rs 24,029 crore to about 30 million small investors by the first week of this month and submitted the relevant documents to the market regulator SEBI.

Appearing for the Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd (SHICL), senior advocate Ram Jethmalani sought extension of the deadline.

A three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir asked Jethmalani as to whether the two companies had paid at least the first instalment of Rs 10,000 crore, which was to have been returned by the first week of January under its December 5, 2012, order granting two-month extension of the deadline.

As Jethmalani replied in the negative, the Bench, which included Justices Anil R Dave and Vikramajit Sen, passed an order rejecting the group’s applications pleading for more time to refund the amounts raised in 2008-09 through Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures (OFCD) violating investors’ protection norms and submission of the documents.

At the outset, senior advocate MN Krishnamani “cautioned” the Bench against entertaining the group’s applications as the judgment in the case had been passed by another SC Bench. However, CJI Kabir said, “We don’t need your cautioning.”

On August 31, 2012, a Bench comprising Justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar had set November 30 as the deadline for returning the funds, but the CJI Bench extended it for two months.

SIRECL and SHICL had collected Rs 17,400 crore but the liability had gone up to over Rs 24,000 crore on account of the interest component.

On February 6, the Bench headed by Justice Radhakrishnan issued notice to the Sahara group on a contempt petition filed by SEBI contending that Sahara had failed to comply with the August 31, 2012 SC judgment. The group has been given four weeks’ time to file its response.

The group has, however, contended that the two companies had refunded most of the amount even before the August 2012 verdict and the outstanding had stood at only Rs 2,620 crore. Against this, Sahara deposited Rs 5,120 crore with SEBI, as much as Rs 2,500 crore in excess so that this could be a buffer just in case Sahara’s calculation of the outstanding amount was wrong.