The Supreme Court on August 25 permitted the new board of management of Unitech Group to hold negotiations with the three Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) about the outstanding dues and the settlement agreement and apprise it within four weeks.
The top court also allowed the sub-committee to hold discussions with Noida and Greater Noida authorities, which has raised objections to the resolution plan presented by the new board, about the dues and the amount payable by the Unitech Group.
Similar talks will also be held by the sub-committee with the Haryana government and its agencies on the claims and the settlement agreed, the bench said.
It should be noted that the three ARCs - Suraksha ARC, JM Financial ARC, and Edelweiss ARC, have been assigned around 8,000 out of the 15,000 total residential units for one-time settlement of the mutually agreed dues.
“In order to enter into a comprehensive settlement with the ARCs, the new management of Unitech Limited has to enter into discussions. For this purpose, a sub-committee of four directors constituted by the new board of management will hold negotiations with Suraksha ARC, JM Financial ARC, and Edelweiss ARC.
"We permit the new board of management to enter into discussions with the ARCs and to place the modalities, the way forward before the court within a period of four weeks. ARCs shall cooperate with the board of management by attending the meetings as and when convened for the purpose of resolving the issues..,” a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and M R Shah said.
The court order is awaited.
The hearing is expected to continue on August 26.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, appearing for the new board, said that there are 74 (residential) and 10 (Commercial) under-construction projects wherein possession of about 15,000 units have to be delivered to homebuyers.
He informed that the construction and completion of the unsold stock of about 4,000 units have to be taken up simultaneously and out of the total, 35 projects (comprising 5,918 sold units of which possession has to be given and another 2090 unsold units) have been assigned to the ARCs.
Venkataraman had said that to ensure the development of all the projects and deliver them to homebuyers, it is important that the new management be given permission for engagement of the PMCs, and for the award of contracts, for all projects, including those assigned to the ARCs.
The top court on August 25 also permitted the sub-committee to hold negotiations with Noida and Greater Noida authorities, which has raised objections to the resolution plan presented by the new board, about the dues and the amount payable by the Unitech Group.
“Without this court being required to go into the details of the objections, it will serve instead of the committee nominated by the board of management of Unitech and the concerned officials of Noida and Greater Noida at the senior level engage in discussions to provide the way forward which while protecting the interests of public authorities will also protect the interests ultimately of the flat owners,” the bench said.
Similar discussions will also be held by the sub-committee with the Haryana government and its agencies on the claims and the settlement agreed, the bench said.
“Similar discussions be conducted with the authority of the state of Haryana within the next four weeks so that the claims and demands that are outstanding, permissions required to be renewed are specifically identified…Haryana should nominate nodal authorities at a sufficiently senior level for engaging in discussions with the new board of management,” the bench said.
On August 25, the bench also allowed payment of over Rs 54 lakh to M/s Grant Thornton, a forensic auditor, which was asked by the top court to assess the irregularities of Unitech Ltd.
The Supreme Court on August 17 directed that 30 days’ time be given to Unitech homebuyers, who had opted for the refund option, to reconsider their decision and opt for possession of their units even as it directed the new management of Unitech Ltd to prioritise the category of homebuyers seeking refunds based on their age, health, distress and the status of the project in which they have booked the units.
In its resolution plan, the new board of management has said that construction of 15,000 units has to be done for delivery of possession to homebuyers in three to four years and at current price levels, the estimated cost of construction is Rs 5,500-6,000 crore.
It had said that if construction is not done, then the refund claims of these homebuyers will be approximately Rs 11,100 crore.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its report, filed in a sealed cover before the top court had said that it has attached properties worth Rs 650 crore of Unitech Group in connection with the money laundering charges against it and others, out of which Rs 450 crore is recoverable.
Providing relief to over 15,000 homebuyers of Unitech, the top court had on January 20 last year, permitted the Centre to take total management control of the embattled firm and approved the name of retired Haryana cadre IAS officer Yudvir Singh Malik as chairman and managing director (CMD) of the new board and directed that the existing board of directors of the company would stand superseded.
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