Subrata Roy gets relief from Supreme Court; Patna High Court order directing production of Roy before court stayed

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Patna High Court order that had directed Patna Police to produce Sahara group chairperson Subrata Roy before the court [Subrata Roy Sahara vs Pramod Saini anr ors].The order was passed by a Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and JB Pardiwala hours after the High Court order, which was also passed on Friday directing police to produce Roy before the Court. The Supreme Court issued notice on the plea filed by Roy and stayed proceedings before the High Court against Roy until further orders."We are informed that pursuant to the impugned order, the High Court has issued further orders today, i.e. 13.05.2022, which has the effect of directing the concerned authority in Patna (police) to produce the petitioner before the Court. In terms of this order, we stay the operation of the direction given by the High Court qua the petitioner till the next date of hearing," the Supreme Court order said. .The Patna High Court had earlier passed a judgment directing Roy to be personally present before it on May 12. Roy had challenged the same before top court.Meanwhile, after Roy after allegedly failed to comply with the judgment directing his personal appearance, the High Court on Friday passed an order directing that he be arrested and produced before the Court. In this regard, single-judge Sandeep Kumar, hearing over 2,000 related cases in the matter, had said that Roy is not above the law, IANS reported. The High Court dismissed contentions of Roy's counsel that he be excused on account of his old age and ailments. When the matter was taken up for hearing by apex court on Friday, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Roy, submitted that the warrant was issued while hearing anticipatory bail petitions in cheating cases relating to recovery of dues payable by Sahara group companies.Roy was not party to any of those anticipatory bail cases but the same was converted to an omnibus case for recovery of proceedings and he was made party, it was submitted.Roy was made party because he was chairperson of Sahara group though he is not related to the cheating cases, it was submitted."We were impleaded in Sahara matter of trying to get back money from investors," said Sibal."So not connected," asked Justice Khanwilkar."Not at all," Roy's counsel replied.The Court then proceeded to grant interim protection to Roy. It stayed the judgment directing his personal appearance and as well as the order directing police to produce him "It is urged that the private complaint filed by one Naresh Kumar Das, being Complaint Case No.1761/2016, is against accused persons named therein. The petitioner has not been named as an accused. Further, the impugned order has been passed against the petitioner on an application for anticipatory bail filed by Pramod Kumar Saini, who has been named as accused no.4 Issue notice, returnable on 19.05.2022. Dasti, in addition, is permitted. Stay of operation of the impugned judgment and order qua the petitioner herein," the order said.The Sahara Group and Roy is already embroiled in a legal battle with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regarding repayment of money collected from investors. The top court had in 2012, directed the Sahara Group to refund to investors over ₹24,000 crores it had collected from them, with 15 per cent interest. Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHICL) allegedly raised the money from 2.5 crore investors through Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures. The SEBI, after a probe ordered the two companies to stop raising funds and refund the same. Roy was arrested in January 2014, following a Supreme Court order. While the Sahara chief is since out on bail, trials continue in courts across the country. .[Read Order]