Is PACL turning into a “Sahara-ian” ordeal for SEBI?

The recovery of money from PACL Ltd is turning out to be an affair bearing striking similarities to the SEBI-Sahara dispute pending before the Supreme Court of India..Senior Advocate Arvind Datar and advocate Pratap Venugopal, appearing for SEBI, informed the Supreme Court today that SEBI is finding it difficult to sell PACL’s properties due to a number of issues including unclear titles..Venugopal cited examples of flats for which finding buyers is difficult, and malls which are already in occupation..“In case of a flat, the whole floor will be one big space with all the partitions/ walls pulled down. How will we sell it? In Gurgaon, there is a mall but a portion of it is already in occupation…it is not possible for us to conduct a title search of all properties”, said Venugopal..The Bench of Justices Anil R Dave and AK Goel, was hearing two applications today – one filed by PACL and the other by SEBI..PACL, in its application, is seeking funds from SEBI for paying salaries to employees so that they can undertake the task of repayment of money to investors..Senior Advocate Anil Divan appearing for PACL, said that,.“Unless employees are paid, how will we undertake the task of repayment of money to the investors?”.The Court asked the SEBI to file its counter and will hear this application on September 6..The second application filed by SEBI sought a direction to the CBI to provide necessary assistance and materials to ensure that a case pending in the Australian Federal Court regarding PACL properties is properly conducted. The court today acceded to the request, and directed the CBI to extend co-operation to SEBI..Advocates Vipin Nair and PB Suresh appeared for the PACL Employees and Customers Protection Forum while advocate R Balasubramanian appeared for the CBI..The Court had earlier appointed a committee headed by former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha to oversee the refund of money by PACL to investors. From the submissions made by SEBI today, it appears that the refund exercise might well turn out to be a gargantuan task like in the SEBI Sahara case.