The Supreme Court on Thursday extended by another 15 days the stay of Sahara group chief Subrata Roy and two other Directors in the Tihar jail court complex to facilitate completion of the negotiations for selling three luxury hotels. Roy had put up for sale his hotels – Dream Downtown and The Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London.
A three-judge Bench of Justices TS Thakur, Anil R Dave and AK Sikri extended the stay after counsel for Sahara chief informed the Court that negotiations through video conferencing with foreign buyers were in an advanced stage of finalisation.
Justice Thakur, however, made it clear to senior counsel S Ganesh, appearing for the three contemnors who are in jail from March 4, that no more extension would be granted and that the deal should be completed within the extended period.
Justice Thakur also told the counsel “the moment you (Mr Roy) come out after complying with our order imposing ₹10,000 crore bail bond, viz ₹5,000 crore by way of cash and ₹5,000 crore through bank guarantee, you should take steps for mobilising the balance amount.” The total liability of Sahara is to the tune of ₹37,000 crore with accrued interest.
Earlier Ganesh informed the court that in the last 10 days, by utilising the facilities made available to the detenus, considerable progress had been made on the negotiations for the three overseas properties and for furnishing the bank guarantee. They had also negotiated for mortgaging the Ambi Valley property in India. They were able to get bank guarantee from a foreign bank for $850 million, approximately ₹5,000 crore.
He said an in-principle agreement had been entered with the prospective buyers and one property was being negotiated at 46 per cent over and above the value prescribed by Bank of China which had advanced loans against these three properties.
He said various legal compliances and procedural requirements had to be carried out in order to conclude the transactions.
There would be lengthy discussions/negotiations on the terms of the draft documents which would be prepared by the lawyers on both sides in consultation with the parties and exchanged between them. Hence he sought another 15 days’ time to complete the process and for complying with the order to come out on bail and the court accepted the plea.