Green Earth Plantation Limited, a Collective Investment Management Company registered under the SEBI (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations, 1999. It has launched a new plantation scheme and issued an offer document

Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations, 1999 ("CIS Regulations") states that no collective investment scheme shall be open for subscription for more than 15 days. However, collective investment scheme may be kept open for subscription for a maximum of another 15 days subject to issuance of public notice by the Collective Investment Management Company before the expiry of initial 15 days. Further, Regulation 24(6) of the CIS Regulations stipulates that, each collective investment scheme shall immediately after the closure of the subscription list comply with the specified conditions including having minimum subscription amount of ₹ 20 crore and minimum 20 investors. Where the collective investment scheme fails to comply with this, Collective Investment Management Company shall be liable to refund the application money to the applicants. In the given situation, Green Earth Plantation Limited has not complied with the provisions of the CIS Regulations, due to the following reasons: (i) Closure of Subscription List The offer document stated that the subscription list would remain open for 15 days, however the company closed it on the 10th day without proper justification or amendment. This is not in accordance with the CIS Regulations. (ii) Minimum Subscription Requirement As per CIS Regulations, the scheme must raise a minimum subscription of ₹ 20 crore. The company collected only ₹ 14 crore, which is below the required amount. (iii) Minimum Number of Investors The scheme must also have at least 20 investors, but the company received applications from only 16 investors, which does not satisfy the requirement. (iv) Utilization of Funds When the minimum subscription or minimum number of investors is not achieved, the scheme cannot proceed and the company must refund the entire application money to the applicants. Therefore, Green Earth Plantation Limited has violated the CIS Regulations by closing the subscription list before the offer period and proceeding with the scheme despite not meeting the minimum subscription (₹ 20 crore) and minimum investor requirement (20 investors). Therefore, the company must refund the collected funds to the investors.