Supreme Court asks Unitech to deposit Rs 750 crore by December end

Satya Prakash

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 30

The Supreme Court on Monday asked realty major Unitech to shell out Rs 750 crore by the end of December and made it clear that the bail plea of the company’s Managing Director Sanjay Chandra would be taken up only after the money towards refund to homebuyers was deposited with its Registry.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, however, asked Tihar jail authorities to facilitate his meeting with his lawyer, company officials and financiers to enable him arrange the money to be used for refund to homebuyers and for completing Unitech’s ongoing projects.

This is the fifth time that the Bench has ignored Sanjay Chandra’s bail plea. Earlier it had rejected his bail plea on September 8, 15, 21 and October 23. 

Amicus Curiae Pawan Shree Aggarwal told the Bench that Unitech needed Rs 2,000 crore to refund homebuyers’ money and completion of ongoing projects.

Sanjay Chandra and his brother Ajay Chandra were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police on April 1, 2017 on complaints of cheating filed by homebuyers against them. 

The Delhi High Court had on August 11 refused to grant interim bail to them. They have challenged the HC’s order before the top court. 

Five buyers of the Unitech’s Anthea Floors Wildflower Country project led by some Delhi residents had filed a complaint for registration of FIR against the company in 2015.

Later, 90 more complaints were lodged against the company for the same project. These 90 complaints were clubbed with the FIR.

On behalf of Sanjay Chandra, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar said Unitech has given a plan for refund and completion of projects and the accused needed time and bail to give effect to it.

The Bench posted the case for hearing in the second week of January, 2018. However, it gave liberty to Chandra to approach it for bail after depositing Rs 750 crore.

The amicus curiae had earlier told the Bench Rs 1,865 crore was needed to refund the homebuyers’ money. 

The top court had on October 23 refused to entertain the bail plea of Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra and asked his company to deposit Rs 1,000 crore to prove its bona fides. 

It had suggested that the partially-complete flats of the real estate major spread over its 64 projects across the country be auctioned. 

CJI Misra had emphasised the need to strike a balance between “one person’s bail” and “tears of 16,299 flat buyers”. “When you (Chandra) will care for the tears of these people, who are your people, your buyers, you will be a free bird,” the Bench had said. 

The amicus curiae had earlier told the Bench that the flats had been handed over to buyers in only 13 out of the 74 projects and 16,300 buyers in the remaining 61 projects were still waiting for it. The worth of 16,300 flats would be around Rs 7,816 crore, he had said. 

The amicus curiae has already created a portal where the homebuyers could upload their details to claim flats or refund from the company.