The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will consider auctioning the unencumbered properties of real estate major Unitech to raise money to refund home buyers, reported PTI. An unencumbered asset is one that is free of any claims by creditors.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra sought details of its unencumbered assets in India and abroad, including the personal assets of the company’s directors. “You [Unitech] have cheated and deceived home buyers,” said Misra, according to NDTV.
The details of the assets have to be filed within 15 days. The court will hear the matter again on March 26, reported Mint.
The court also imposed a fine of fined Rs 25 lakh on JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Company , which had taken over some of Unitech’s loans. The court said that the firm had given the impression that it would pay the money to help refund Unitech’s home buyers. “We treat it as an unnecessary diversion form the main case,” the bench said.
On March 5, the Supreme Court had asked Unitech to file an affidavit with details of its assets in India and abroad. The realtor submitted a list of its properties on Monday, but said that it was incomplete, reported NDTV.
Unitech is facing multiple cases filed by flat buyers who allege that Managing Director Sanjay Chandra had duped them. The Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police had arrested Chandra and his brother Ajay in 2017 for allegedly cheating home buyers and siphoning off clients’ money to foreign accounts.
The real estate firm did not complete several housing projects in Greater Noida and Gurugram on time, and the company’s management did not refund the money along with interest, leaving thousands of buyers in the lurch. As many as 4,688 buyers have claimed a refund of Rs 1,865 crore from Unitech.
In December 2017, the Centre had successfully moved the National Company Law Tribunal to have 10 interim directors appointed to Unitech’s board as its affairs were “not being carried out honestly”. However, the Supreme Court then stayed the order, and the Centre admitted to not have sought control over the management.
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