The auction process for the Sahara group's prime Aamby Valley properties would continue as it has failed to deposit Rs 750 crore in the SEBI-Sahara refund account, the Supreme Court held on Wednesday.
A special bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra considered the submission of senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing Subrata Roy and the Sahara group, that they be allowed to sell the properties on their own as auctioning would not fetch the desired price.
Two Indian companies — Mahindra Lifespace Developer and the Piramal Group — have shown interest in purchasing the property either in parts or in total.
Sources familiar with the development said even the two prospective bidders who had submitted their KYC forms initially did not turn up for the inspection.
The properties on auction include an integrated hill city township spread over 6,761.642 acres in the great Sahyadri mountain range, 1,409.865 acres of land surrounding Aamby Valley City Development and land measuring 321.656 acres within the Satara district.
Aamby Valley sale: The claim was submitted to the official liquidator on April 26, after the Supreme Court ordered the auction of Aamby Valley in February for non-submission of over Rs 5,092 crore by the Sahara Group.
The auction will be conducted through MSTC Ltd. The Supreme Court on August 10 rejected Sahara chief Subrata Roy's plea to allow the firm to repay its investors till July 2019.
The counsel, said the group had an alternate payment plan to offer and requested the court to put the auctioning process for Aamby Valley in Pune on hold. On July 25, the apex court had asked Roy to deposit Rs 1,500 crore in the Sebi-Sahara account, for repaying depositors, by September 7.
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