The corporate affairs ministry has now sought time till Wednesday to respond and take instructions on how to protect home buyers’ interest.

Supreme Court NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre why it did not take permission to move the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to take over management of Unitech when the apex court was already dealing with the case.

The corporate affairs ministry has now sought time till Wednesday to respond and take instructions on how to protect home buyers’ interest. The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for tomorrow.

“We pointed out to the Supreme Court that the NCLT order is contrary to the apex court’s directions, to which the court observed that the Centre should have taken its permission before approaching NCLT,” said a lawyer who represented Unitech.

Unitech lawyers also argued that the government approached NCLT without giving them proper notice.

Home buyers are still not sure about how the case will unfold. “We want the case to unfold a little better. There are a lot of inhibitions at present. However, I feel the interest of home buyers will not be impacted in any which way,” said Ashwarya Sinha, who is representing many Unitech home buyers in the Supreme Court.

On the corporate affairs ministry’s plea to take over the Unitech management in ‘public interest’, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on November 8 suspended the Unitech board for alleged mismanagement of funds and barred its directors from selling either personal or company assets. It also allowed the Centre to name 10 nominee directors, paving the way for a government takeover of the developer. The principal bench of NCLT said that there is a prima facie case of mismanagement. NCLT has asked the government to submit its list of fresh nominee directors by December 20.

However, after hearing Unitech’s argument separately later in the day, NCLT said its order will be subject to compliance with the apex court’s directives.

The Supreme Court on October 30 had asked Unitech promoters to deposit Rs 750 crore in its registry by end-December, allowing them to sell their properties for raising the cash.

Source: ETRealty