Sahara's Aamby Valley project: Supreme Court asks Bombay HC receiver to help in auction

The lengthy court battle between the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the beleaguered Sahara Group just might be close to end. The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a fresh auction of the luxury resort town, Aamby Valley, in Pune, which would be completed in about eight weeks from December 1. The apex court has appointed the official receiver of the Bombay HC to take care of the property till the auction is completed.

A 'receiver' is an independent person, appointed by a court, to manage property or other assets during a lawsuit. This means the property is no longer under the control of the Sahara Group. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and AK Sikri also asked the official liquidator of the Bombay high court to take the help of the Receiver and ensure the Aamby Valley properties are properly auctioned. It has reportedly released a sum of Rs 84 lakh for advertisement of the fresh auction.

Back in April, the Supreme Court had ordered the start of the auction process for the property in October, after two companies of the group, Sahara India Real Estate and Sahara Housing Invest Corp, failed to refund Rs 24,029 crore raised from over 29.6 million investors along with an interest of 15%. In October, Sebi approached the apex court seeking contempt proceedings against the Sahara Group for obstructing the auction process by allegedly suspending day-to-day business activities in the project. According to Sebi, the Group had involved the Pune police citing law and order issues. And once the police took custody of the property, no bidder was willing to take part in the auction process.

Taking a note of the SEBI's allegation, the court said the group could not have approached the police on the issue since the auction had been ordered by the top court. Incidentally, on August 10, the apex court had rejected Sahara chief Subrata Roy's plea to put on hold the auction process. It said the auction process would proceed as per schedule and if Rs 1,500 crore was paid by Roy in the SEBI-Sahara refund account by September 7, it may pass an appropriate order. Unable to drum up the money, Roy tried the obstruction route, which has also now backfired.

(With PTI inputs)