Hand over Amby Valley project to official liquidator: Supreme Court to Maharashtra DGP
, ET Bureau|
Updated: Oct 13, 2017, 01.28 AM IST
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Maharashtra DGP to hand over Sahara’s flagship project Amby Valley to the Bombay High Court official liquidator for auction after market regulator Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) blamed the company for the failure of the first round of bidding for the project.
Appearing for Sebi, senior advocate Arvind P Datar said before a three judge bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that no bidders appeared after the Amby Valley Board declared lock-out and handed over the property to the state police. Sahara lawyer Kapil Sibal, who had initially resisted any court order to auction off Amby Valley to recover pending dues from the company, had at the last hearing pointed out that there were only two prospective bidders for the project.
The court had, however, shrugged off the Sahara plea for more time to gather funds to pay off dues and asked the market regulator to go ahead with the scheduled auction.
The auction, Datar told the court on Thursday, failed after Sahara wrote to police to take over the administration of the project. Datar, assisted by Sebi standing counsel Pratap Venugopal, sought contempt action against the company and its directors. The top court did not for the time being take any contempt action against the company or its directors, but ordered the Maharashtra DGP to hand over the project to the liquidator who will dispose of the property.
He will function under the Company Law Board judge and a High Court judge. Sebi will then attempt to auction it again. The Saharas owe Rs 37,000 crore along with the principal and interest to the market regulator to be paid back to investors in two schemes.
Both these schemes were held illegal by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT). This was later upheld by the top court.
The Saharas have so far paid only a fraction of it. Sahara chief Subrata Roy has already spent two years in jail over the company’s failure to pay off its dues. Roy, who was marched off to Tihar from the court, was eventually released to attend the last rites of his mother. The top court has since linked his freedom to periodic payments of dues. The company has not been able to pay the last two tranches of the dues, and had sought extension of time to pay it.
Alternatively, the company has sought to repay the balance amounts in tranches over a two-year period. The court has refused to accept that plea too and demanded immediate repayments.
Sahara claims that the real estate bust-up and demonetisation has left it with little of funds and urged the court to grant it more time. The company had stoutly resisted the auction of its star project, Amby Valley, too, seeking more time to get in more funds.
Appearing for Sebi, senior advocate Arvind P Datar said before a three judge bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that no bidders appeared after the Amby Valley Board declared lock-out and handed over the property to the state police. Sahara lawyer Kapil Sibal, who had initially resisted any court order to auction off Amby Valley to recover pending dues from the company, had at the last hearing pointed out that there were only two prospective bidders for the project.
The court had, however, shrugged off the Sahara plea for more time to gather funds to pay off dues and asked the market regulator to go ahead with the scheduled auction.
The auction, Datar told the court on Thursday, failed after Sahara wrote to police to take over the administration of the project. Datar, assisted by Sebi standing counsel Pratap Venugopal, sought contempt action against the company and its directors. The top court did not for the time being take any contempt action against the company or its directors, but ordered the Maharashtra DGP to hand over the project to the liquidator who will dispose of the property.
He will function under the Company Law Board judge and a High Court judge. Sebi will then attempt to auction it again. The Saharas owe Rs 37,000 crore along with the principal and interest to the market regulator to be paid back to investors in two schemes.
Both these schemes were held illegal by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT). This was later upheld by the top court.
The Saharas have so far paid only a fraction of it. Sahara chief Subrata Roy has already spent two years in jail over the company’s failure to pay off its dues. Roy, who was marched off to Tihar from the court, was eventually released to attend the last rites of his mother. The top court has since linked his freedom to periodic payments of dues. The company has not been able to pay the last two tranches of the dues, and had sought extension of time to pay it.
Alternatively, the company has sought to repay the balance amounts in tranches over a two-year period. The court has refused to accept that plea too and demanded immediate repayments.
Sahara claims that the real estate bust-up and demonetisation has left it with little of funds and urged the court to grant it more time. The company had stoutly resisted the auction of its star project, Amby Valley, too, seeking more time to get in more funds.
