Sahara moves SC to hold back Aamby Valley auction

Sahara Group Chief Subrata Roy Wednesday moved the Supreme Court asking it to hold back the auction of Aamby Valley project for now. The apex court had approved the auction of Sahara Group's prized property asking the official liquidator of Bombay High Court's scheme to publish the sale notice by Aug 14. Justice Dipak Misra refused to fix the time for the hearing and told Roy's counsel that he would consult fellow bench members Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice A.K. Sikri for the same.

Roy sought an early hearing to give his payment plan to the court. The court had earlier asked Sahara to deposit 15 bln rupees by Sep 7 to the Securities and

Exchange Board of India for extending the parole of the group chief, Subrata Roy. At the previous hearing on Jul 5, the court had asked the company to deposit 5.52 bln rupees with the capital market regulator, of which the company had managed to pay only 2.47 bln rupees. The court said the 3.05 bln rupees that the company failed to pay by Jul 15, will be part of the 15 bln rupees payable by September 7. Valuation of Aamby Valley has been a major bone of contention between the two parties, as the liquidator priced it at 370 bln rupees while the company claims the project can fetch over 700 bln rupees. Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Roy, had said that in the process of raising 2.47 bln rupees that the company had deposited, it had to sell its hotels in New York.