Mumbai, July 23 (PTI): The Securities Appellate Tribunal today gave 18 months to Alchemist Infra Realty to comply with Sebi orders to refund an estimated Rs 1,000 crore collected from the public through unauthorised collective investment schemes (CIS).

The company had collected about Rs 1,000 crore from about 1.5 million investors.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had found Alchemist running unauthorised CIS businesses and had asked it to refund the money collected through such schemes.

After hearing the company’s appeals against Sebi’s orders, the SAT today passed an order upholding the regulatory directions against the realty firm but gave the company 18 months to refund money in view of the “long and tedious process of implementing the scheme of repayment” to such a large number of investors.

The company had sought five years for the refund process.

After considering facts and circumstances of the case, the tribunal said, “a period of 18 months would duly suffice”, with a rider that the company shall “submit a report to Sebi every six months giving accurate details regarding progress made while executing the scheme of repayment in question”.

Besides, the tribunal said the company could seek further extension of time to implement Sebi’s order in case any eventuality arises in the future.

With regard to another appeal against Sebi’s decision to reject a consent plea by Alchemist Infra Realty, the SAT observed that the regulator should have given the company more time.

“Sebi should not have returned the request of the company for a consent.”

In separate orders, the tribunal also directed Maitreya Services and NGHI Developers to refund money collected from the public. Both companies were running unauthorised CIS businesses.

In March, Sebi had barred Maitreya Services and its directors from the securities market till the time all its schemes were wound up. It had decided to initiate prosecution proceedings against them.

The market regulator had found that the company had launched and operated CIS without registering with it for the same and an amount of Rs 804 crore was outstanding with to be repaid to investors.

In the matter of NGHI Developers, Sebi through an order in July 2012, had banned the Jaipur-based firm from collecting money from investors and accessing the capital market. The company was collecting funds from the public to develop plots of land.