Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Arvind Kumar Gupta vs Unitech Ltd. . on 30 November, 2018
Bench: D.Y. Chandrachud, M.R. Shah
ITEM NO.57 COURT NO.13 SECTION XVII
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Civil Appeal No(s). 10851/2016
ARVIND KUMAR GUPTA Appellant(s)
VERSUS
UNITECH LTD. & ORS. Respondent(s)
(IA NO.138022/2018 – CLARIFICATION/DIRECTION
IA NO.23396/2018 – CLARIFICATION/DIRECTION
IA NO.69785/2018 – EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.
IA NO.89520/2018 – I.A. FOR DIRECTION
IA NO.66018/2018 – INTERVENTION APPLICATION
IA NO.138019/2018 – INTERVENTION APPLICATION
IA NO.49108/2018 – INTERVENTION APPLICATION
IA NO.129613/2018 – INTERVENTION APPLICATION
IA NO.117001/2018 – INTERVENTION APPLICATION
IA NO.86677/2018 – INTERVENTION APPLICATION
IA NO.145062/2018 – INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT
IA NO.69781/2018 – INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT
IA NO.49501/2018 – INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT
IA NO.136620/2018 – INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT
IA NO.23393/2018 – INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT
IA NO.2/2016 – PERMISSION TO FILE ANNEXURES
WITH
C.A. No. 10856/2016 (XVII)
C.A. No. 2511-2526/2017 (XVII)
(IA No.66938/2017-EXTENSION OF TIME and IA No.90673/2017-
EXTENSION OF TIME)
C.A. No. 5174-5181/2017 (XVII)
(IA NO.53934/2017 – CLARIFICATION/DIRECTION)
C.A. No. 9391-9404/2017 (XVII)
(FOR impleading party ON IA 98431/2017
FOR INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT ON IA 98431/2017)
IA NO.60512/2017 – APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS
C.A. No. 15493/2017 (XVII)
(IA No.77581/2017-CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING and IA
Signature Not Verified
No.77582/2017-CLARIFICATION/DIRECTION and IA No.78654/2017-
Digitally signed by
VISHAL ANAND
Date: 2018.12.01
PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS and IA No.82788/2017-
14:27:08 IST
Reason:
PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS)
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SLP(Crl) No. 5978-5979/2017 (II-C)
(IA NO.73472/2017 – PERMISSION TO FILE SLP WITHOUT
CERTIFIED/PLAIN COPY OF IMPUGNED ORDER)
C.A. No. 11008/2017 (XVII)
(IA No.80805/2017-EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED
JUDGMENT and IA No.85513/2017-INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT and IA
No.85519/2017-INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT and IA No.85880/2017-
INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT and IA No.95992/2017-impleading party
and IA No.98113/2017-APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS and IA
No.98117/2017-DELETING THE NAME OF RESPONDENT)
C.A. No. 17008-17011/2017 (XVII)
(AND FOR PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS ON IA
94736/2017
FOR APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS ON IA 96100/2017
FOR CLARIFICATION/DIRECTION ON IA 15770/2018
IA NO.94577/2017 – EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED
JUDGMENT)
C.A. No. 16858/2017 (XVII)
(FOR ADMISSION and IA No.97166/2017-PERMISSION TO FILE APPEAL
and IA No.112640/2017-impleading party and IA No.112648/2017-
APPLICATION FOR TRANSPOSITION and IA No.128215/2017-impleading
party)
C.A. No. 20003/2017 (XVII)
(IA No.119851/2017-CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING and IA
No.119859/2017-EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED
JUDGMENT and IA No.119854/2017-CONDONATION OF DELAY IN REFILING
and IA No.119862/2017-APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS)
SLP(C) No. 30997/2017 (XVII)
(FOR ADMISSION and I.R.)
C.A. No. 3727/2018 (XVII)
(FOR ADMISSION and I.R. and IA No.41950/2018-CONDONATION OF
DELAY IN FILING and IA No.41952/2018-APPROPRIATE
ORDERS/DIRECTIONS)
C.A. No. 6837-6838/2018 (XVII)
(IA NO.82490/2018 – EX-PARTE INTERIM DIRECTION)
SLP(C) No. 12667/2018 (XVII)
(FOR ADMISSION and I.R.)
Diary No(s). 20540/2018 (XVII)
( IA No.104959/2018-EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED
JUDGMENT and IA No.104957/2018-CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING
APPEAL and IA No.104958/2018-CONDONATION OF DELAY IN REFILING)
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C.A. No. 8524/2018 (XVII)
(IA NO.111987/2018 – CLARIFICATION/DIRECTION)
C.A. No. 10609/2018 (XVII)
( IA No.141034/2018-CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING)
Date : 30-11-2018 These matters were called on for hearing
today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE D.Y. CHANDRACHUD
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M.R. SHAH
Counsel for the parties:
Mr. Pawanshree Agrawal, AOR (Amicus Curiae)
Mr. Varun K. Chopra, Asstt. A.C.
Mr. Abhipsa Anamika, Adv.
Ms. Priyanjali Singh, AOR
Mr. Rahul Rathore, Adv.
Mr. Karunsh Kumar Shukla, Adv.
Petitioner-in-person
Mr. Deepak Goel, AOR
Dr. A.M. Singhvi, Sr. Adv.
Ms. Rebecca M. John, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Gaurav Bhatia, Adv.
Mr. Mahesh Agarwal, Adv.
Mr. Abhinav Agrawal, Adv.
Mr. Abhimanyu Bhandari, Adv.
Mr. Rajiv Kumar Virmani, Adv.
Mr. Vishal Gosain, Adv.
Mr. Atul Malhotra, Adv.
Mr. Anuroop Chakravarti, Adv.
Ms. Nattasha Garg, Adv.
Ms. Tarannum Cheema, Adv.
Mr. E. C. Agrawala, AOR
Ms. Divya Roy, AOR
Mrs. Rachana Joshi Issar, AOR
Mr. Rahul Shyam Bhandari, AOR
Mr. Awanish Kumar, AOR
Mr. Ruchit D., Adv.
Ms. Pinky Anand, ASG
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Mr. A.N.S. Nadkarni, ASG
Ms. Praveena Gautam, Adv.
Mr. Rupesh Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Rajiv Nanda, Adv.
Mr. T.A. Khan, Adv.
Ms. Anil Katiyar, Adv.
Mr. B. V. Balaram Das, AOR
Mr. Kaushik Choudhury, AOR
Mr. Rahul Kaushik, AOR
Ms. Reema Khurana, Adv.
Mr. Chandra Bhushan Prasad,
Mohd. Ainul Ansari, Adv.
Mr. Aneesh Mittal, Adv.
Ms. Shreya Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Shish Pal Laler, Adv.
Mr. Sonit Sinhmar, Adv.
Mr Sanjay Maurya, Adv.
Ms. Surbhi Lata, Adv.
Mr. Ajay Jain, Adv.
Mr. Jinendra Jain, Adv.
Mr. Chiraj Aneja, Adv.
Mr. Pranay Jain, Adv.
Mr. Brijesh Yadav, Adv.
Ms. Meenakshi Arora, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Shashi Bhushan P. Adgaontri, Adv.
Ms. Misha Rohatgi Motha, Adv.
Mr. Rana Sandeep Busa, Adv.
Ms. Rachna Joshi Issar, Adv.
Ms. Vandana Mishra, Adv.
Ms. K. Vaijayanthi, Adv.
Mr. Shailabh Pandey, Adv.
Ms. Abhilasha Singh, Adv.
Mr. M.R. Shamshed, Adv.
Ms. Preeti Singh, Adv.
Mr. Sunkalan Porwal, Adv.
Ms. Manorma Masih, Adv.
Mr. Mahabir Singh, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, AOR
Mr. Gagan Deep Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Vikas Deep Jain, Adv.
Ms. Nidhi Jain, Adv.
Mr. P.K. Jain, Adv.
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Mr. Saurabh Jain, Adv.
Mr. P.K. Goswami, Adv.
Mr. S.P. Singh Rathore, Adv.
Mr. Ashok K. Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Uday Prakash Yadav, Adv.
Mrs. Anuradha Soni Verma, Adv.
Mr. Shryansh Aggarwal, Adv.
Mr. Rajesh Goyal, Adv.
Mr. H. Arjun, Adv.
Mr. Nikhil Tyagi, Adv.
Mr. Narender Prasad Yadav, Adv.
Mr. Yadav Narender Singh, Adv.
Mr. U.A. Rana, Adv.
Mr. Himanshu Mehta, Adv.
M/s Gagrat & Co., Adv.
Mr. R.N. Venkatramani, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv.
Mr. S.K. Rajora, Adv.
Mr. Ranjit Kumar Sharma, Adv.
Mr. S. Udaya Sagar, Adv.
Mr. Mrityunjai Singh, Adv.
Mr. Om Prakash Ajit Singh Parihar, AOR
Mr. Abhijeet Singh, Adv.
Ms. Pragya Palawat, Adv.
Mr. Prashant Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Joseph Pookkatt, Adv.
Mr. Dhawesh Pahuja, Adv.
Mr. Navode Singh Raj Purohit, Adv.
Mr. Dhiresh Dwivedi, Adv.
Ms. Charu Ambwani, AOR.
Mr. Abhinav Mukeni, Adv.
Ms. Bihu Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Siddharth Garg, Adv.
Ms. Purnima Krishna, Adv.
Mr. Romanatha Pradhan, AOR
Mr. Aabhas Parimal, AOR
Mr. Nikhil Swami, Adv.
Mrs. Divya Swami, Adv.
Mr. Sunil Gupta, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Jatin Zaveri, AOR
Mr. Neel Kamal Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Rajat Sehgal, AOR
Ms. V. Anand, Adv.
Mr. Anurag Rawal, Adv.
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Mr. Gopal Jha, AOR
Mr. G.R. Pandey, Adv.
Mr. Chandan Kr. Mandal, Adv.
Ms. Rohini Wagh, Adv.
Ms. Reema Khurana, Adv.
Mr. Chandra Bhushan Prasad, AOR
Mr. Rabindra Tiwary, Adv.
Mr. Arvind Gupta, AOR
Mr. Tejasvi Goel, Adv.
Ms. Rashi Bansal, AOR
Mr. Sunil Mittal, Adv.
Mr. Anshul Mittal, Adv.
Mr. Sushant Bali, Adv
Mr. Gopal Sankar Narayan, Adv.
Mr. Ashok Kumar Jain, Adv.
Mr. Pankaj Jain, Adv.
Mr. Amit K., Adv.
Ms. Priyanka Das, Adv.
Mr. Bijoy Kr. Jain, AOR
Mr. Apurv, Adv.
Ms. Liz Mattew, AOR
Mr. Gyanendra Kumar, Adv.
Ms. Jyoti Dastidar, Adv.
Ms. Shreya Seth, Adv.
For M/s. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, AOR
Ms. Shilpa Chohan, Adv.
Mr. Shawahiq Siddiqui, Adv.
Mr. Rajesh Singh, Adv.
Mr. Sanjay Parikh, Adv.
Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR
Mr. Ritwick Parikh, Adv.
Ms. Sanjana Srikumar, Adv.
Mr. K. Amrit Kumar Sharma, Adv.
Mr. M.L. Lahoty, Adv.
Mr. Paban K. Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Anchit Sripat, Adv.
Mr. Himanshu Shekhar, AOR
Mr. Shubhranshu Padhi, AOR
Mr. G. Dhillon, Adv.
Mr. P. Kavin Peabhu, Adv.
Ms. Shobha Gupta, AOR
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Mr. Sourav Roy, Adv.
Ms. Devahuti Tamuli, Adv.
Mr. Pritesh Kumar, Adv.
Mr. C.A. Sundaram, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Nikhil Nayyar, AOR
Ms. Pritha Srikumar Iyer, Adv.
Mr. N. Sai Vinod, Adv.
Mr. Dhananjay Baijal, Adv.
Mr. Divyanshu Rai, Adv.
Mr. Naveen Hegde, Adv.
Ms. Vasudha Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Mansi Binjrajka, Adv.
Mr. Brijendra Singh, Adv.
Mr. Anoop Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Vandit Mishra, Adv.
Ms. Anuradha Mishra, Adv.
Ms. Jahnvi Sharma, Adv.
For M/s. Anuradha & Associates, AOR
Dr. Harish Uppal, Adv.
Mr. Jileshwar, Adv.
Mr. Vikas Mehta, AOR
Mr. Mithun S., Adv.
Mr. Sanjay Jain, AOR
Mr. Parveen Kumar Aggarwal, Adv.
Mr. Vipin Kr. Jai, Adv.
Mr. Yashvardhan, Adv.
Mr. Puneet Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Akshat Shrivastava, Adv.
Mr. Inderjeet Yadav, Adv.
Mr. B. Ragunath, Adv.
Mr. Sri Ram, AOR
Mr. K. Balaji, Adv.
Mr. Harin P. Rawal, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Joseph Pookkatt, Adv.
Mr. Prashant Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Dhawesh Pahuja, Adv.
Mr. Dheeresh Dwivedi, Adv.
Mr. Navodaya Singh Rajpurohit, Adv.
Mr. Ashwani Garg, Adv.
Mr. Vijay Kumar, AOR
Mr. Akhil Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Isha Agarwal, Adv.
Mr. Sachin Jain, Adv.
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Mr. Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi, AOR
Mr. Sukant Vikram, AOR
Mr. Abhinav Ankit, Adv.
Ms. Priya Kashyap, Adv.
Mr. G.D. Ahmed, Adv.
Ms. Vandana S., Adv.
Md. Mohsin, Adv.
Mr. Rajesh Goyal, Adv.
S. Jain, Adv.
Mr. Varun Chopra, Adv.
Mr. Gurlej, Adv.
Mr. Dharmendra Kr. Gupta, Adv.
For M/s. Aswathi M.K., AOR
Mr. Ajay Kumar Talesara, AOR
Mr. A.P. Sinha, Adv.
Mr. Gaurav Bhatia, AOR
Mr. Utkarsh Jaiswal, Adv.
Mr. Himanshu Shekhar Tripathi, Adv.
Mr. Avinash H. Sharma, AOR
Mr. Madhav Dadhich, Adv.
Mr. Ishhan Sanghi, Adv.
Mr. Anil Kr. Tandale, AOR
Ms. Sanya Talwar, Adv.
Mr. D.K. Sinha, AOR
Mr. Tara V. Ganju, Adv.
Mr. Ayush Samaddar, Adv.
Mr. Abhishek Chaudhary, AOR
Ms. Sarwana Nanda Dubey, Adv.
Mr. Amit Singh, Adv.
Mr. Vikas Chaudhary, Adv.
Ms. Sujata Upadhyay, Adv.
Ms. Maithili Shubhangi, Adv.
Mr. Khowaja Siddiqui, Adv.
Mr. Ashwini Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Raghav Kakar, Adv.
Mr. Arup Sinha, Adv.
Mr. Praveen Aggarwal, AOR
Ms. Kirti Renu Mishra, AOR
Ms. Apurva Upmanyu, Adv.
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Mr. Vivek Gupta, AOR
Mr. Pranav Kaashyap, Adv.
Mr. Mrinmay Bhattmoward, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
The report submitted by the Justice (Retired) S.N. Dhingra Committee has been filed by the Learned Amicus Curiae. The report indicates the steps which have been taken for conducting auction of the lands situated at Agra, admeasuring 76.37 acres and at Varanasi, admeasuring 112.56 acres. The Committee has stated that no bid was received for either of the aforesaid properties. The Committee, is however, intends to revise the conditions of auction and to publicise its proposals in the market about the proposed sale of the lands at Agra and Varanasi. We permit the Committee to do so and request it to take all necessary steps to ensure the disposal of the lands at Agra and Varanasi.
The Committee had initiated the process of e-auction of the land at Sriperumbudur through ‘HDFC Realty’ as the auctioneer. The land available for sale admeasures about 355 acres, as the Committee is at present advised. After the publication of an advertisement on 19 November 2018, the Committee noted that a buyer had come forward for negotiations for the sale of the entire land. The Committee has observed that it is advantageous if one buyer enters into an agreement for the entire tract of land. The buyer in question was called for negotiations and after initial negotiations, an offer of Rs.78 lakhs (Rupees Seventy Eight Lakhs) per acre to purchase 9 the land was enhanced to Rs.81 per acre. This is obviously subject to further enhancement on negotiations. In order to establish its bona fides, the buyer has submitted a bank guarantee of Rs.5 crores (Rupees five crores) with the Committee in the name of the Registrar, Supreme Court of India and proposes to pay an initial amount of Rs.50 crores (including the above amount of Rs.5 crores) while executing an MOU. The balance is proposed to be deposited within a period of fifteen to eighteen months. The period for payment is likely to be shortened in negotiations with the Committee. The Committee has furnished reasons in its report on the basis of which it has proposed that this Court may permit it to proceed ahead with the negotiations and in which event, the e-auction can be placed on hold.
Having due regard to the reasons which have been contained in the report of the Committee, it is appropriate that the Committee is permitted to proceed ahead with negotiating the terms of the MOU with the proposed buyer. The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the home buyers have also supported the view of the Committee that the land at Sriperumbudur should be sold at the earliest and that the Committee may be authorised to proceed with its negotiations. We permit the Committee to do so. Before it proceeds to finalise the negotiations, the Committee will submit its report elaborating the proposed terms of sale before this Court.
Apart from the properties at Agra, Varanasi and Sriperumbudur, Unitech had filed a list of other unencumbered 10 properties. The other unencumbered properties are: (i) land situated at Virar (Mumbai); (ii) land situated at Gurgaon admeasuring 5.14 acres; (iii) 60 per cent holding in Unitech Hotels Pvt. Ltd.; (iv) 50 per cent holding in Adventure Island Ltd. (Rohini Amusement Park, Delhi); and (v) 41.95 per cent stake holding in Entertainment City Ltd. (Noida Amusement Park); and (vi) Unsold inventory of unfinished/units in completed projects.
In addition to the above, there are other unencumbered lands available for sale, details of which are provided in the report submitted by the learned amicus curiae on 22.11.2018. They are as follows :
State Land Details Area (acres)
Kerala Village Kizhakkambalam, Taluk 38.26
Kunnathunadu,
Ernakulam District
Kerala Village and Taluk Kunnathunadu, 26.95
Ernakulam District
Kerala Village Kakkanad, Taluk 14.61
Kanayannur, Ernakulam District
Andhra Village Mankhal, Maheshwaram 24.50
Pradesh Mandal, Ranga Reddy District
Tamil Nadu Village Kolathur, Chingleput 24.34
Taluk, Kacheepuram District
Maharashtra Village Kelus, Mayane Khawne, 106.00
District Sindhu Durg
We request the Committee to proceed ahead with the sale of the above unencumbered properties as well.
The Committee has in its report furnished details of 11 the status pertaining to five construction projects. The Committee has thus far released an amount of Rs.2.14 crores on the basis of bills submitted by Unitech for completing construction. The Committee has indicated that 80 flats out of 147 have been completed at Unihomes, Mohali and the architect is to carry out inspection within a period of one week. By end January 2019, 147 flats are to be completed so that possession can be handed over to the purchasers.
Work of Vistas, Gurgaon and Unihomes 117 Noida is in progress. Though the work on the remaining two projects has not commenced as yet, it is likely to commence at an early date. The Committee has observed that in the case of some of the stalled projects, a huge amount is required for completion and the time period for construction would be substantial. Hence it has been proposed that at present, projects where 70 to 90 percent of the work has been carried out, may be taken up on priority for completion. We consider that this suggestion of the Committee is fair. The Committee will identify such of the projects where atleast 70 per cent of the work has been completed so that these projects can be taken up for early completion on the same footing, as the earlier five projects. The Committee will accordingly proceed to make an assessment of the amount required for the completion of the remaining work and complete the other logistical formalities so as to facilitate further directions being passed for disbursal. The Committee may carry out this exercise at the earliest preferably within two months from today.
12 Shri Gopal Sankaranarayan learned counsel has submitted for the home-buyers that there is a need to have a forensic audit to be conducted of the developer. Shri M.L. Lahoty and Shri Anand Grover, learned senior counsel have supported the plea. We propose to take up further consideration of this aspect on the next date of hearing.
The learned Amicus Curiae is permitted to deposit the draft of Rs.5 crores which has been drawn in favour of the Registrar, Supreme Court of India before the Registry.
We order accordingly.
List on Monday, 3 December 2018.
(GEETA AHUJA) (SAROJ KUMARI GAUR)
COURT MASTER (SH) BRANCH OFFICER
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