The Supreme Court has ordered Sahara Group to pay back 24,000 crore rupees with 15 per cent interest to over three crore investors in its two companies within nine weeks in two installments.

The first installment of 10,000 crore rupees has to be paid by the first week of January next and the remaining by the first week of February.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir directed the Sahara Group to immediately hand over a demand draft of Rs 5,120 crore to market regulator SEBI and said the balance amount shall be deposited with the market regulator in two instalments to be cleared by early February.

With Wednesday's order, the court modified the August 31st verdict which had set a three-month deadline ending November to the Sahara group to make the refund.

The order was passed on an an appeal filed by the Sahara group against a November 29th order of the Securities Appellate Tribunal , which had refused to entertain their plea and asked them to approach the Supreme Court.

During the hearing, the bench said that at the moment, it appears that the Sahara group was not in a position to make the entire payment as directed by the apex court by the August 31st verdict.

Strong objections over the court order were raised by SEBI and an association of investors, which said the directions were being given without hearing their submissions.

The Supreme Court had on Monday rapped the Sahara group for not implementing its order to refund the amount to investors. It had asked the two Sahara firms-Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation-to explain if the entire amount can be refunded within a week.

The Sahara group had on Tuesday sought more time to furnish the details of the refund of the investors' money it had mopped up through optionally fully-convertible debentures , following which the case was adjourned till Wednesday.

Under the scheme scrapped by the apex, the two Sahara firms had offered bonds to small investors promising huge returns.
The court had also said that SEBI can attach properties and freeze bank accounts of the companies if they fail to refund the amount. It had appointed one of its retired judges Justice B N Aggarwal to oversee the action taken by SEBI against the two companies.