The Supreme Court has given permission to the official liquidator to initiate proceedings for the global auction of Sahara's most valuable asset, Aamby Valley, worth over £4 billion. A meticulously planned city with world-class infrastructure and facilities, Valley is Sahara's flagship project, comprising luxury resorts, man-made lakes and an airport. The property is spread over 10,000 hectares in Pune, and in 2012, the company valued it at £3.4 billion, but the liquidator tapped its worth at £4.3 billion.
A bench comprising of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and Justice AK Sikri decided to go the whole hog to fetch over £900 million yet to be paid to market regulator Sebi, instead of the monthly exercise of fixing the instalment to be paid by the Sahara group. It directed the liquidator to invite bidders by publishing sale notice in newspapers across the world. As per the last order, the group was asked to deposit £55.2 million by July 15, but the company paid only £24.7 million. The liquidator told the bench that notice had to be published across the world to invite bidders in view of the high worth of the property. He also informed that the whole exercise of auctioning would take about five months.
“The official liquidator shall publish the sale notice as given by him, and the notice shall be published on August 14. The steps which are required to be taken for the publication of the sale notice are allowed. The amount that is required for publication shall be given from Sebi's Sahara account,” the bench said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represents Sahara, had strongly opposed the decision to auction the property, pleading the SC to grant 18 months' time to deposit the entire amount. He said the group should be allowed to sell the property after developing it. However, the bench turned down his plea and directed initiation of auction process.
“Indulgence has the propensity to give rise to procrastination, which is the murderer of justice. Therefore, we are disposed to think that the first two steps for sale of Aamby Valley project shall be undertaken within this time and or the same we approve the draft sale notice submitted by the official liquidator and direct him that he shall take the first two steps,” the bench said.
