SC: Sell Pearls arm assets

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
The Supreme Court today ordered the sale of the properties of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL) and refund the investors duped by the company.
A Bench comprising Justices Anil R Dave and AK Goel appointed a committee headed by former Chief Justice RM Lodha to monitor the sale and the refund to be done by market regulator SEBI.
The Bench directed the Central Bureau of Investigation, which had seized the property documents of the company, to hand over the title deeds of the lands to SEBI so that the market regulator could begin the sale and refund process.
In its order, the apex court restrained other courts in the country from entertaining any petition against the sale proceedings. The order came on a PIL by PACL customers and staff association, comprising more than 3,500 people mainly from Kerala.
The SC also directed the company not to accept any deposit from the public hereafter. The petitioners had sought a direction to SEBI to initiate proceedings against PACL to recover about Rs 500 crore collected from investors in Kerala. The court has posted the next hearing in the case for August 2.
Earlier, SEBI had directed another Pearl group company, Pearl Green Forests Ltd (PGF Ltd), to refund the money it had collected under various schemes to the investors, mainly in Punjab and Haryana, as per the terms of the offer.
 
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