SC REJECTS SUBRATA’S PLEA TO STOP AUCTION OF AAMBY VALLEY
In a fresh setback to Subrata Roy, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected his plea to defer the auction of Sahara Group’s Aamby Valley City in Maharashtra and ordered the auction to go on as per schedule.
The court appointed the registrar general of Bombay high court as the Supreme Court’s representative and said, “The official liquidator is permitted to carry out the auction as per procedure and during the auction the registrar general of the high court of Bombay, who is designated as Supreme Court appointee, shall remain personally present to over see the physical auction at the auction venue at Mumbai.”
The SC bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, added, “He, who thinks or for that matter harbours the notion that he can play with law, is under the wrong impression.”
In its order, the court rued the fact that Roy had used it as a ‘laboratory’ and said, “We are constrained to state that the respondent-contemnor (Roy) in his own way has treated this court as a laboratory and has made a maladroit effort to play, possibly thinking that he can survive on the ventilator as long as he can.”
The Roy-owned Sahara Group’s Aamby Valley City was put up for auction on August 14 this year in keeping with the Supreme Court order for its sale to recover the money owed to investors.
The official liquidator, attached to the Bombay high court, published a notice inviting bids for the property located in the lush green Sahyadri mountain ranges close to the popular hill station of Lonavala. The reserve price has been fixed at ₹37,392 crore.
“The ultra-exclusive chartered city has residential options ranging from the timber chalets to fabulously modern and customised villas in distinct architectural styles and several amenities such as golf course, airport, hospital, adventure sports, retail, entertainment, international school and hospitality,” the notice said.
Up for bidding are 6,761.64-acre Aamby Valley City Development, 1,409.87 acres of land surrounding the project, and another 321.66 acres in the adjoining Satara district.
Roy had earlier sought permission for an agreement with Victor Koenig UK Limited for an investment of US$ 1.67 billion in Aamby Valley.
The court allowed Sahara to begin negotiations but refused to put the auction on hold.
The auction is the fallout of the court’s April 27 order that found Sahara guilty of contempt in a dispute with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
Sahara has been ordered to refund millions of small investors who put money in its two schemes that were declared illegal by the market regulator.
The company has so far paid a little over ₹11,000 crore and wanted time till July 2019 to deposit the remaining ₹14,779 crore with Sebi.