Amrapali Group of Companies’ Attached Properties to be Auctioned: Apex Court

The Supreme Court has on Monday brought the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation (MSTC) of the presently defunct, Amrapali Group of Companies and its directors, to auction. All it happened to ensure speedy disposal of attached properties. The SC has also directed them to deposit the cash with the apex court registry.   

The Apex Court said that the funds collected through auction of properties will help in speedy completion of stalled projects and bringing back the confidence of home buyers.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit accepted the suggestion of senior advocate R Venkataramani, appointed as court receiver by the top court for auctioning of the attached properties of Amrapali.

The top court directed the relevant documents of the attached properties, which were with the Debt Recovery Tribunal be given to the MSTC, which would auction the assets and deposit the amount with the apex court registry.

The top court also asked Orissa State Housing Board, to deposit Rs. 34 crore with the apex court registry, which had been deposited by Amrapali Group with it for developing a housing project.

Similarly, the top court also asked the Raipur Development Authority to deposit Rs. 19 crore with the apex court registry.

The counsel for Raipur Development Authority said that Rs. 19 crore was deposited by Amrapali Group for the lease of three land plots for development into a housing society but the agreement was never fulfilled and the authority had to cancel the contract.

The top court took strong exception of non-compliance of its order of depositing the home buyers' money by Surekha Group and directed that its directors Vishnu Surekha, Navneet Surekha and Akhil Surekha will have to remain present on December 2, if they do not deposit Rs. 167 crores with the apex court registry within six weeks.

"There are adverse finding against you all in the forensic audit and despite that you have not complied with our orders to return the money. Forensic auditors have found that there was a transaction of Rs. 167 crore. It was home buyers money and you have to return that money or face the consequences," the bench said.

The top court also restrained the Noida Authority from creating any rights or alienating the land of the Amrapali Heartbeat City, of which the lease it has recently cancelled.

The court took on record the third report of forensic auditors with regard to the Heartbeat city project of Amrapali and others.

On September 11, the top court had warned the homebuyers of now defunct Amrapali Group that their unwillingness to pay the outstanding dues may lead to winding up of the stalled projects due to financial crunch.