Fali Nariman appointed amicus in SEBI Sahara matter; Sahara allowed to sell properties, Subrata Roy to remain in jail

The Supreme Court has appointed senior counsel Fali Nariman as an amicus in the on-going dispute between market regulator, SEBI and the Sahara group. The bench of Justices TS Thakur and AK Sikri has also allowed Sahara to sell its immovable properties across nine cities while hearing a petition that also sought placing Sahara chief Subrata Roy’ to be put under house arrest..The SEBI-Sahara matter has grabbed headlines on a number of occasions ever since hearings began in the Supreme Court. The most recent such example was the 207-page, strongly worded judgment against Subrata Roy and his lawyers delivered by Justices KS Radhakrishan and KS Khehar, dismissing a habeas corpus petition for Roy. A day after delivering the judgment, J. Khehar recused himself from the case. Although no official reason was given, his brother judge, the recently retired KS Radhakrishnan did mention the “tremendous pressure” that they had to face while hearing the matter..It is not clear why Nariman has been appointed as amicus at this stage of the proceedings although it will not be the first time the senior counsel will be involved in a matter relating to the Sahara group. In fact, he had appeared for Sahara before the Constitution Bench led by then CJI Kapadia, a Bench that was constituted to decide on media guidelines for reporting ongoing litigations..This is also the second high profile matter that the senior counsel has been made an amicus in, the first relating to allegations of sexual harassment made against former Supreme Court judge, J. Swatanter Kumar. The senior counsel, along with Senior Advocate PP Rao, was tasked with the job of formulating a redressal mechanism to deal with sexual harassment complaints against sitting and retired judges.