The Supreme Court of India continued hearings in the Solomon James writ 383 case last Monday. The Union of India had received two weeks to file a response to the Lahoti Mediation Report. The court's attention focused on whether Speak Asia could meet its financial obligations to members, a commitment the company had claimed possible in an affidavit.

Speak Asia's affidavit asserts its ability to fulfill these obligations. But the sheer amount of money potentially owed raises questions about where the company would find such funds. Reports circulate of 1,300 crore rupees taken from members, calculated from 1.2 million members paying 11,000 rupees each. This figure represents the initial intake, not necessarily the total owed.

AISPA Secretary Ashok Bahirwani declared a complete victory for Speak Asia and its panelists. He stated that SAOL had been ordered to deposit 50 crore rupees with the Supreme Court Registry. Bahirwani also noted that the CBDT (IT Dept) was asked for details of its dues, and the EOW was ordered to hand over website administration rights and other materials to Justice Lahoti.

The 50 crore figure, however, appears to originate solely from Bahirwani's public updates. The February 6th court order itself makes no mention of a deposit already made. Instead, the order directed "the concerned respondents to deposit the amount indicated by the learned Mediator with the Secretary General of the Supreme Court within two weeks of the order of the learned Mediator."

The amount indicated by the mediator has not yet been set. To determine what Speak Asia owes its members, the court asked the mediator to "ascertain how much amount in fact is due and payable to the petitioners and other authorities." The court further directed Respondent No. 6, the EOW, to provide a printout of its collected data to the mediator by February 11, 2012.

The EOW previously stated publicly that "the total payouts assured by the company to investors is more than Rs.30,000 crore." This figure was calculated and released by the EOW after it gained access to the Speak Asia website, including databases that tracked member reward points. The Supreme Court is now asking mediator Lahoti to determine the amounts owed to panelists based on this EOW data.

The court's decision to rely on EOW data to establish Speak Asia's debt implies a lack of trust in the company's own ability to provide accurate financial records.