New Delhi: In a significant decision, the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Sahara Group to deposit Rs 1,000 crore in an escrow account within a time frame of 15 days.

Additionally, the court gave the green signal to the group's proposal to enter into a joint venture for development of its Versova land in Mumbai, aimed at raising funds of Rs 10,000 crore.

An escrow account is an account where funds are held in trust by two or more parties. This means that a trusted third party will keep the money safe.

The judge said this

An amount of Rs 10,000 crore is to be deposited in the SEBI-Sahara refund account to refund investors' money in compliance with the apex court's 2012 order. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi said that if the joint venture agreement is not filed in the court within 15 days, it will sell 1.21 crore square feet of land in Versova on 'as is where is' basis.

Further hearing after one month

The bench said that the Rs 1,000 crore to be deposited by the third party will be kept in an escrow account. If permission (for the joint venture agreement) is not given by this court, the amount will be refunded to the third party. The court listed the matter for further hearing after a month.