[Unitech Case] Supreme Court appoints former SC judge Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre to assist in sale of assets

The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed former Supreme Court judge, Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre to assist Unitech Company's Board of Management in selling off its assets [Bhupinder Singh v. Unitech Ltd.]..A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah appointed the retired judge to ensure that the proposed procedure is in the interest of maintaining transparency and realizing the best possible price for the assets which would fund the construction of units for homebuyers."We accordingly request former Justice AM Sapre to assist the Board of Management in that regard under the auspices of the directions of this court. The proposed SOP which is formulated in Annex 3.1 of ATR 3 shall be placed before Justice AM Sapre for his scrutiny and such modifications as may be be considered in that regard," the top court ordered..In January 2020, the apex court had allowed the Central government to take total management control of the respondent Unitech company and appoint a new board of nominee directors in order to protect the interests of over 12,000 homebuyers..At the hearing on Wednesday, when the bench proposed the inclusion of a former judge in the process. the Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman agreed to the same on behalf of the Union Government."It will lead to transparency and it will also protect the board of management," the ASG submitted..The apex court also directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to submit a status report detailing the steps taken by it regarding the ₹500 crores which is alleged have been siphoned off, as well as the attached assets. .Unitech promoters, Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra are currently in jail after they were arrested on charges of cheating and duping homebuyers.They was arrested by the Economic Offices Wing of the Delhi police in March 2017 after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against them pursuant to an order by Patiala House court in Delhi in July 2015.The FIR was lodged based on a complaint by a homebuyer in relation to the Anthea project in Gurugram. Subsequently, more such complaints were received against the Unitech with respect to Anthea project.The homebuyers had approached the police after flats were not handed over to them within the stipulated deadline despite having paid money to the company.Investigating authorities have maintained that the prima facie probe indicated that money realised from the flat purchasers was siphoned off.