Condemning the “psychological offensives and mind games” attempted at by the Sahara Group, the Supreme Court on Tuesday junked the firm’s petition for releasing its chief Subrata Roy and two directors, who have been jailed since March 4 over failure to refund investors’ money. A bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and JS Khehar said that the power to punish would serve no purpose if the power to enforce compliance was lacking and hence it was justified in law and on facts to imprison Roy, the promoter of the companies which flouted court order “with impunity.” Pointing to the “defiant” attitude of Roy and the Sahara companies, the judges expressed that during their entire careers as advocates and judges of various courts, they were “yet to experience a demeanour of defiance, similar to the one adopted by SIRECL or SHICL (Sahara companies) or their promoter and directors.” It noted that the firms adopted a “demeanour of defiance constituting a rebellious behaviour, not amenable to the rule of law” and the court’s efforts to cajole them into paying the money were stonewalled. Sahara said in a release that it was “disappointed” with the judgment. “We maintain that we have already refunded to 93 per cent of our investors. We expect to return to the Hon’ble Court in the near future with further evidence of our compliance of the Hon’ble Court’s previous orders.,” it said.
