Sahara Directed to Present a Logical Proposal
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Sahara Group to come out with a logical and acceptable proposal on paying `10,000 crore for getting its chief Subrata Roy out of jail, while refusing to entertain his plea for being put under house arrest in Lucknow.
A new Bench comprising Justice T S Thakur and Justice A K Sikri, constituted after Justice J S Khehar recused himself from hearing the matter and asked the group to come out with fresh proposal. “You come with a specific proposal and not cast your net so wide, stalemate will not help anybody, including investors. Come with a specific, logical and acceptable proposal,” the Bench observed.
Sahara informed the court that it is willing to sell a few of its properties, including hotels located in London and New York. The Bench said the matter would be taken up next week and asked the group to prepare its proposal by then. Senior advocate Rajiv Dhawan, appearing for the group, contended that Roy has been behind bars for the last 75 days and pleaded that he should be taken out from jail and be put under house arrest in Lucknow.
The Bench, however, said that at present it is not going to pass any order.
Roy, who has been in jail since March 4 for non-refund of over `20,000 crore to depositors, was asked by the court to make fresh proposal for paying `10,000 crore to get bail. The court had passed the order on a petition filed by Roy challenging the constitutional validity of its order passed on March 4 by which he was sent to jail for not complying with its order to deposit around `20,000 crore of investors’ money with SEBI.