SC constitutes panel to sell assets of Pearls Group

To ensure “earliest possible” refund of nearly Rs 50,000 crore collected by Pearls Group in a large-scale illicit money pooling scheme, the Supreme Court has constituted a special committee for sale of immovable properties and liquidation of fixed deposits of the group.

A bench, headed by Justice FMI Kalifulla, directed that the committee, comprising retired high court judges Justices K Ramamoorthy and Eshwar, will be assisted by Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “We are of the view that realisation of the monies and disbursement to the large number of investors would require considerable length of time and effort, for which a separate and independent special committee needs to be constituted consisting of retired Judges of High Courts who can be invested with the required power and authority for sale of the immovable properties after asserting the saleability, apart from liquidating the fixed deposits seized by CBI for the purpose of disbursement to be made to the various investors,” the bench, also comprising Shiva Kirti Singh, said.  The apex court made it clear that it was for the committee to chalk out its own programme to ensure that the realisation of the monies by way of sale of the immovable properties as well as liquidation of fixed deposit receipts are carried out in a phased manner for the purpose of collecting sufficient amount for disbursement. “Having regard to the nature of work and time factor, we leave it to the members of the special committee to determine their remuneration as well as other expenses which shall be borne by the appellant (Pearls Golden Forest Limited) as per directions by members of the special committee,” the bench said in its March 24 order.