The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the disbursal of Rs 5,000 crore of over Rs 24,000 crore deposited by Sahara Group with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India to repay dues of the depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi allowed an application filed by the Centre seeking allocation of the amount lying in the SEBI-SAHARA refund account for payment to the depositors. The top court also extended the date from December 31, 2025 to December 31, 2026 for disbursal of Rs 5,000 crore to the depositors allocated in 2023. 

The bench said the order was in line with the March 29, 2023 order where a similar application of the Centre was allowed for allocation of Rs 5,000 crore to repay dues of the depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies. The amount of Rs 5,000 crore was directed to be transferred from the SEBI-Sahara Refund Account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies, which was asked to disburse it to genuine depositors upon scrutiny. The bench said the transfer of the amount should be done within a week under the supervision of former SC judge R Subhash Reddy and in the manner as outlined in the court's March, 2023 order. 

The Centre has filed an application in a PIL filed by Mohanty, who sought a direction to pay the amount to the depositors who invested in Sahara credit firms.