Put Aamby Valley auction on hold, Sahara tells SC
NEW DELHI: Sahara Group moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking to put on hold the auction of Aamby Valley, its township coming up near Pune. The group cited a proposed agreement by Mauritius-based Royal Partners Investment Fund Ltd to invest $1.67 billion in Aamby Valley as reason for its move.
The application was mentioned before a bench headed by justice Dipak Misra, who said the matter would be taken up at a later date.
Subject to approval of the agreement by the court, 50% of the invested amount, i.e., ₹5,000 crore would be deposited towards the designated Sebi-Sahara refund account and the balance would be utilised for the development and completion of the project.
Kapil Sibal, counsel for Sahara, urged the court to lift the order regarding publication of the sale notice and sought more time to review its payment plan.
Sahara, in its application, submitted that the transaction would go through if the court’s order initiating auction of the Aamby Valley project was stalled.
“Royal Partners Investment Fund Ltd has put a condition that their investment would be possible only if Aamby Valley is not announced for any sale/auction, else they will withdraw from the proposal”, the application stated.
On July 25, the court had directed the official liquidator of the Bombay High Court to initiate the first two steps of the Aamby Valley auction process. This would include publication of the sale notice of the property and satisfaction of the KYC (know your customer) norms to be submitted by prospective bidders.
The court had also asked Sahara Group to deposit Rs1,500 crore in a dedicated Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) account by 7 September.
It was, however, clarified that the auction process (beyond the first two steps) would be stopped if Sahara paid in time.
The court has been recovering money from the group in instalments. It has paid ₹16,000 crore till now.
Sebi moved the apex court in August 2014 to recover ₹36,000 crore from Sahara to refund investors who had purchased securities from two group firms, through schemes that Sebi ruled were illegal.