New Delhi : The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday directed the official Receiver of the Bombay High Court to help the Liquidator in getting the Sahara Group’s Aamby Valley property auctioned.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri also asked the official liquidator of the Bombay HC to take the help of the Receiver and ensure that the Aamby Valley properties are auctioned. “We want the property to be auctioned. Till then, we will appoint the receiver of the Bombay HC to help in auctioning, till it is complete,” the bench said. It also directed the official liquidator, who has been entrusted with the task of conducting the auction, to take instructions from the company judge or the Bombay High Court, reports PTI.
The apex court was hearing market regulator SEBI plea seeking contempt action against the Sahara Group for allegedly obstructing the auctioning process of Aamby Valley.
In its plea, SEBI had alleged “wilful and deliberate attempt” on Sahara’s part “by adopting a subterfuge to cause interference with the administration of justice, especially in a court directed and monitored auction sale of the Aamby Valley property under various orders of the apex court.”
On August 10, the apex court had rejected Sahara chief Subrata Roy’s plea to put on hold the auction process. It had said the auction process would proceed as per schedule and if Rs 1,500 crore is paid by Roy in the SEBI- Sahara refund account by September 7, then it may pass an appropriate order. Roy has been on parole since May 6 2016, after spending almost two years in jail. Parole was granted the first time to enable him attend his mother’s funeral and has been extended since then. Besides Roy, two other directors — Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary — were arrested for failure of the group’s companies to comply with the court’s August 31, 2012, order to return Rs 24,000 crore to investors.
