The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India on Tuesday said the merger of Sahara India Life Insurance Company with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company was the result of a two-year-process, Mint reported. The IRDA was responding to Sahara’s appeal in the Securities Appellate Tribunal claiming that the merger did not follow the principles of natural justice.

The IRDA said that Sahara was made fully aware of every part in the two-year merger process. It said the company had also been issued two show-cause notices in the last two years about its insurance business. “The appellant [Sahara] chose not to reply or to provide vague and evasive replies,” the publication quoted the IRDA statement. “Sahara provided a vague, belated and unimpressive reply to the first show-cause notice—a case of too little too late.”

On July 29, while passing the order for merger of Sahara Life and ICICI Prudential, IRDA had observed that Sahara was uninterested in reviving its insurance business.