SC appoints officer to oversee sale of Amrapali properties
NEWDELHI: To raise funds to complete Amrapali’s unfinished housing projects, the Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed a debt recovery tribunal (DRT) officer to oversee the sale of unencumbered assets of the beleaguered real estate company.
The court also gave the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) a go-ahead to take over and complete all unfinished work of the group.
A bench of justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit issued the directives after hearing that the group had not filed its income-tax returns between 2015 and 2018.
The court said DRT officer Dharmendra Singh Rathore will be in charge of selling the properties. All stakeholders have been asked to appear before him on September 25 to provide details, including the encumbrances.
NBCC was asked to ascertain if Amrapali’s assets can be utilised to raise funds to kick-start the work. The order included opening of an account in the Supreme Court, where funds can be deposited once the assets and inventories are sold. The money would be disbursed to NBCC from this account, the court said.
Justice Lalit told additional solicitor general Pinky Anand, who appeared for NBCC, that since the corporation had shown willingness, it has to be concrete. “We will hold you to do that,” the judge said.
The court has already ordered a forensic audit of Amrapali’s accounts. On Wednesday, the company’s internal auditor told the bench that no I-T returns were filed between 2015 and 2018.
Auditor Ravi Kapoor’s counsel said it was given records only till March 31, 2015. Amrapali’s lawyer, Guarav Bhatia, explained that the returns could not be filed due to pending litigation.
Justice Lalit told Kapoor that as a good auditor, he should have asked the company to provide him with the documents and, if denied, he should have put down his papers. He was directed to give the documents to the auditor conducting a forensic audit.
The bench also deliberated on the option of asking the homebuyers to pay their dues as one of the ways to raise funds to enable NBCC start the work.
Opposing this, lawyer for homebuyers ML Lahoty argued that the homebuyers deserved compensation, to which the bench said: “We are aware.”
However, the bench said it would not deal with the compensation plea at this stage.