The Supreme Court has designated a committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia as the Asset Sale Committee to oversee the auction of properties of Pancard Clubs Ltd (PCL) and facilitate recovery for investors.

The Court noted that, according to SEBI, PCL owes ₹7,035 crore to its investors following allegations of fraudulent fund mobilisation through an unregistered Collective Investment Scheme.

A division bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K.V. Viswanathan designated Justice Dhulia as Chairman of the Asset Sale Committee. The Committee will comprise one nominee each from SEBI, the investigating team under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act and the investors. The investor nominee will be decided by Justice Dhulia.

The Court directed SEBI to provide all secretarial assistance to the Committee.

The proceedings arose after SEBI challenged the NCLAT's dismissal of its appeal against an NCLT order rejecting its intervention application in PCL's insolvency proceedings. The Section 7 application filed by a group of investors was admitted by the NCLT and subsequently culminated in approval of a resolution plan covering 19 properties for ₹707 crore. Of the ₹200 crore payable by the Successful Resolution Applicant over a period of time, ₹69.80 crore had been paid to investors.

The Supreme Court had earlier constituted a committee headed by Justice Dhulia to ascertain the correct valuation of the assets, particularly the 19 properties forming part of the resolution plan. The exercise was undertaken keeping in mind the interests of investors.

The Committee's report found that 47 properties directly owned by PCL were valued at ₹619.57 crore. It also identified 217 properties in the name of PCL's associated companies, of which three could not be valued, while the remaining 214 properties were valued at ₹814.19 crore. The combined value of properties belonging to PCL and its subsidiaries and associates was assessed at ₹1,433.76 crore.

The Court thereafter designated the same Justice Dhulia-led committee as the Asset Sale Committee. It directed the Committee to prepare a list of all properties and start putting them to auction. Any objection concerning a particular property may be raised before the Committee, which will consider it on its merits.

The Committee will also examine the issue of alleged undervaluation at the instance of SEBI, which is pending before the Bombay High Court. It will also examine a claim concerning a property where PCL had a 22% share in the company of the claimant.

The Committee will also endeavour to identify assets purchased abroad and undertake their valuation. SEBI has been directed to place details of these properties before the Committee, while the Union government and other authorities have been directed to provide necessary assistance.

The remuneration of Justice Dhulia and the other Committee members will initially be borne by SEBI. The amount may subsequently be recovered from funds collected through the auction proceedings.

All pending proceedings will remain in abeyance until the Committee completes the exercise. The matter, along with connected appeals, will next be heard on November 27, 2026, at 2 pm to report further progress.  

For Appellant: Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, Chander Uday Singh, Pratap Venugopal, Sr. Advocates, Advocates Abhishek Baid, Mohit Kumar Bafna, Praneet Das, Ravinder Kumar, Anup Jain, Ashok Kumar Jain, M/s Expletus Legal, AOR

For Respondents: Senior Advocates S. Muralidhar, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Prakash D. Naik, Vikram Chaudhri, Navin Pahwa, Sridhar Potaraju, Advocates Akhil Sarathy, Aarthi Rajan AOR, Kartik Malhotra, S. Santanam Swaminadhan, Abhilasha Shrawat, Aman Rawat, Manasigauri Agrawal, Ninni Susan Thomas, Megha, K Rigved Prasad, Apoorva Singh, Deepayan Mandal, AOR, Sumesh Dhawan, Vatsala Kak, Sagar Thakkar, Mridul Bansal, Naman Varma, Monu, Sreejan Shankar, Mahesh Agarwal, Ankur Saighal, Shivam Shukla, Anushree Kapooria, E. C. Agrawala, AOR, Aishwarya Bhati, A.S.G., Archana Pathak Dave, A.S.G., Madhulika Upadhyay, AOR, Parmod Kumar Vishnoi, Raghvendra Shukla, Uma Prasuna Bachu, Vanshaja Shukla, Rajesh Kumar Singh, Apoorv Kurup, Amit Sharma B, Ishaan Sharma, Sankalp Sharma, Yash S. Vijay, AOR Ms. Dixita Gohil, Pranjal Agarwal, Riya Tyagi, Rishabh Periwal, Shikhar Aggarwal, Joshua Tom Thomas, Prashant S. Kenjale, Damini Vishwakarma, B. Dhananjay, Hrishikesh Wanzalkar, Juristrust Law Offices- 3644, AOR, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Bharat Bagla, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR, Shrirang B. Varma, Aditya Krishna, Sushmita Pandey, Arunima Das, Ashwin Arun Hirulkar, Kunika Bansal, Megha Karnwal, AOR , Aaditya Thorat, Shreya Mishra, Christy J. Philip

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Case Title :  SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE BOARD OF INDIA VERSUS RAJESH SURESHCHANDRA SHETH & ORS.Case Number :  Civil Appeal No(s).5017/2023
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