The Supreme Court will hear today an appeal filed by ailing real estate major Unitech against an order of the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) directing the central government to take over the company.
The NCLT had just days ago asked the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) to name 10 nominee directors to the Unitech Board. The government is expected to give in the names by December 20, the next date of the hearing in the NCLT. The NCLT order had come on a plea by the Ministry.
On December 11, appearing for Unitech, solicitor general Ranjit Kumar, said that the company had filed an appeal against the order in the top court and urged an immediate hearing on its plea. The appeal has been filed through Agrawal Law Associates.
“The company has to pay up Rs 700 crore. Six of its accounts have been frozen,” he told a three-judge bench led by chief justice of India Dipak Misra, hearing the case. He suggested that the NCLT order and the top court orders, to pay the rest of its dues to homemakers who had sunk in their money in Unitech projects through Delhi-NCR region, “ran contrary to each other”. “We want to deposit the money.”
The CJI wanted to know who had sought a government takeover of the company. Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said that the government prompted the CJI to ask him to get back to the court on how the government proposes to take care of the homebuyers interest in the case.
