SC to Sebi: Why hold up court-ordered closure of Sandesara fraud case?

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has objected to Sebi not closing proceedings against former directors of Sterling Biotech (SBL), Nitin and Chetan Sandesara, despite its directions to quash all pending criminal cases - pertaning to bank fraud - after they paid Rs 5,100 crore in court.

A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and A S Chandurkar agreed to hear the complaint of the Sandesara brothers and posted hearing to March 23. It asked why Sebi was "coming in the way" of the court's order to close all cases against them.

In a first-of-its-kind order to drop criminal proceedings in a multi-crore bank fraud case after the accused agreed to pay back the money, SC had last year allowed the brothers and their associates to be let off after the Centre and Enforcement Directorate agreed to their proposal to pay Rs 5,100 crore as one-time settlement to put quietus on litigations with respect to cases by CBI, ED, SFIO and I-T department.

They, thereafter, deposited the amount. SC had said continuation of criminal proceedings would not serve any useful purpose, considering that public money is coming back to lender banks.

SC on Monday will also decide an application of local lenders, led by SBI, seeking directions for disbursal of their respective claim amounts deposited with the court's registry by the Sandesara brothers. The lenders placed a chart showing dues of the lender banks and their respective share to be distributed.
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