You are in jail by choice: apex court bench tells Sahara chief

Jailed Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy’s plea for his release on humanitarian grounds today evoked a sharp reaction from the Supreme Court which said “you are in jail by choice”.

“One thing which is troublesome is that the person (Roy) says there is an asset of ₹1,85,000 crore. He tells the court that he has so much of money but when it comes to paying one-fifth of that he is unable to pay.

“You have to pay only the one-fifth of your amount. The person who is blessed with so much money is sacrificing his liberty in jail and not parting away with his property. You are in jail by choice,” a Bench headed by Justice TS Thakur observed and referred to his earlier submissions when Roy had claimed that the group has sufficient assets to pay the investors.

The remarks were made when senior advocate Kapil Sibal was making a submission that it was not fair for the court to keep Roy in jail when the contempt proceedings against him were not over.

Further, he said, other large business houses did not have to suffer like this and their loans of considerable amount like ₹1,000 crore get rescheduled for payment in five or 10 years by the RBI or banks.

The senior advocate said it was difficult for Roy to arrange a big amount for his release by staying inside the jail and the court should consider humanitarian grounds for his release.

However, the Bench said “please appreciate we have certain constraints. Read the previous orders passed by this court. You will know why your client is in jail. Read it you will not say.”

Senior advocates Arvind Datar for SEBI and Shekhar Naphade, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae, said appointment of receiver was inevitable.

“Why can’t a receiver be appointed. Let the properties be taken over and let it be sold and the money be deposited with the receiver as it is apparent they are incapable of generating money and selling properties,” the bench said adding that a retired judge of the apex court who was appointed to oversee the action taken by SEBI against Sahara Group, would be the chairman of the Receiver.

“These people can enforce agencies to proceed with the sale of property. It is not a happy situation,” the bench, also comprising Justices AR Dave and AK Sikri said after approving the sale of Sahara Group’s 140-acre land in Gorakhpur which was settled for ₹152 crore.