New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the DGP of Maharashtra to hand over possession of the Aamby valley project in 48 hours to the Official Liquidator of the Bombay High Court, if the Pune police had taken possession of it, to facilitate the auction of the properties. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Ranajn Gogoi and A.K. Sikri passed this order after Sebi informed the court that Sahara had informed the Pune Police that it had declared a lock of all activities in Aamby valley project following the decision to auction the property and thereby preventing the auction.
The Court asked the Company Law Judge to assist the Official Liquidator in conducting the auction and Justice A.S. Voka would also work in unison with them. The court warned that anyone putting impediment in the auction process would be hauled up for contempt of court and sent to jail. Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi for Sahara refuted Sebi’s allegations and it was not behaving as a regulator.
“We have no objection for the auction but there are no buyers. The property has not been handed over to the police”, he said. The Bench, however, refused to hear him at this stage. Senior counsel Arvind P. Datar for Sebi said the police had taken possession of the property and auction could not take place on October 3, as there were no buyers. The Saharas had orchestrated this to prevent auctioning of the properties as directed by the apex court.
