The Supreme Court on Monday initiated proceedings for public auction of Unitech properties by allowing the amicus curiae assisting it to issue public notice in leading newspapers inviting objections to the unencumbered properties supplied by the company in Court.
The company’s jailed Managing Director Sanjay Chandra was also given a ray of hope as the Court indicated that if he is able to bring Rs 180 crore by way of sale of assets, the Court will consider granting him custodial parole.
Chandra’s lawyers have been facing a tall order to get their client out on bail after the Court placed a condition asking for a deposit of Rs 750 crore for permitting his release.
The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, was guided by the sole purpose of providing immediate succor to the lakhs of homebuyers who had no place to go after Unitech failed to deliver neither flats nor agreed to make refund.
On the direction by the Court, Unitech had supplied a list of all unencumbered properties held by it and its subsidiaries in a sealed cover.
On Monday, the Court allowed amicus curiae Pawanshree Agarwal to open the seal and issue a public notice in all leading national and local dailies inviting objections for their sale. These properties are spread across the country and account to about 99 acres and 46 hectares. This would be the first step towards public auction of the properties. The amicus indicated that issuance of public notice will verify the company’s claim of the property being unencumbered.
Unitech’s counsel senior advocate Ranjit Kumar informed the bench that another sum of Rs 150 crore was coming upfront as the process to sell two plots of land belonging to Unitech and its subsidiaries in Bengaluru was in the final stages. One property belongs to Unitech Power Transmission limited which is due for purchase by Shapoorji Pallonji Group for an estimated sum of Rs 110 crore. The other property is a 36 acre plot of which 11 acres will be sold initially for a sum of Rs 40 crore.
In addition, SC issued notice on an application moved by Unitech seeking payment of Rs 400 crore from Telangana Government and further restrained the National Consumer Commission in a separate proceeding from disbursing an amount of Rs 36 crore that was due for refunding aggrieved homebuyers.
Unitech suggested that this amount too be brought within the corpus collected by the Court to refund homebuyers.