SEBI Asks For Subrata Roy's Detention!

First the contempt petitions, then the freezing of assets and now a detention plea – on Friday, SEBI fired another salvo in its efforts to get the Sahara Group to comply with the August 31st Supreme Court order. The Board moved the Supreme Court demanding the detention of Sahara group Chairman- Subrata Roy- on the grounds that Roy and his company have not followed the apex court's previous order. Payaswini Upadhyay fills you in.

SEBI has asked for 5 things* in an affidavit that it filed in the Supreme Court on Friday, 15th March First, SEBI be allowed to issue public advertisements for investors to claim their deposits Second, that SEBI be allowed to refund the money of genuine investors after verification, without waiting for Sahara to deposit the entire amount of over 20,000 crore rupees. SEBI hopes to refund this from the first installment of 5,120 crore rupees that Sahara had paid in December last year Third, that SEBI be allowed to appoint a special officer to scrutinize and oversee the sale of properties belonging to Sahara Group companies that have been attached by SEBI. Remember, the Supreme Court's August 31st order had asked SEBI's whole-time member to do this... now, SEBI wants to delegate this to a special officer and is seeking SC permission to do so Fourth, that the passports of Subrata Roy and Sahara's Directors be impounded. And lastly and most importantly, SEBI is seeking the detention of Subrata Roy and Sahara's Directors. Now the Civil Procedure Code allows a Court to order detention in civil prison. And SEBI says that since Sahara has not complied with the apex court's order, such a move is warranted. In a press release, Sahara has responded by saying that provisions of the Civil Procedure Code prescribing Civil Detention do not apply to SEBI, as under the SEBI Act, application of CPC is clearly barred. It also says there is no non-compliance on the part of Sahara’s officials. The matter is likely to come up for hearing in the SC on April 8th. In Mumbai, Payaswini Upadhyay  * This is source-based information. ‘The Firm’ could not confirm the names of Sahara’s Directors mentioned in SEBI’s affidavit.