Promoters of Pearl Agrotech Corporation (PACL) — Subrata Bhattacharya and Gurmeet Singh — on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court against a Sebi order that found the company violating collective investment scheme regulations by mobilising money without registering with the regulator.
Sebi had on August 22 last year directed PACL and its promoters to refund close to over R44,376 crore that it collected from around 58.5 million customers through the CIS. The Securities Appellate Tribunal on August 12, while upholding Sebi’s order, had asked PACL to wind up operations within three months.
“In such a case, permitting PACL to operate CIS by seeking registration under CIS Regulations would have been travesty of justice. Accordingly, no fault can be found with the decision of Sebi in directing PACL to wind up all existing schemes and refund the monies collected from the investors with the return which are due to its investors,” SAT had noted.
The case against PACL and its promoters dates back to 1997, when Sebi first alleged that the company was running a CIS without its permission.
