New Delhi: The workers' union of the ailing
shopping co-operative Super Bazar on Monday filed a contempt
petition in the Supreme Court against the Dainik Bhaskar
Group, which had emerged as the highest bidder to bail out the
shopping chain.
Almost a decade ago, Super Bazar suffered massive losses
and the apex court had given its nod for the chain's revival
by quashing the co-operative society's liquidation order and
had directed the Dainik Bhaskar group to take over its
management.
The court had declared Writers and Publishers Ltd (the
Dainik Bhaskar Group) as the successful bidder after the group
agreed to pay Rs 504 crore to bail out the sick cooperative.
A Bench headed by Justice SH Kapadia, however, deferred
the hearing on the matter for two weeks and asked the Super
Bazar Karamchari Hiteshi Sangthan to file the apex court's
order that was allegedly violated by the Dainik Bhaskar group.
In its petition, the Sangthan said the apex court had in
May last year asked the highest bidder (Writers and Publishers
Ltd) to deposit Rs 54.31 crore with the registry of the court
so that the official liquidator could pay off the creditors as
well as dues of local authorities from the deposited money.
However, the group had failed to pay the dues till now,
Sangathan's counsel R K Kapoor said.
"In the interest of justice, it is most respectfully prayed that the court may be pleased to initiate contempt proceedings against the respondents (Dainik Bhaskar Group) for violating the directions of the Supreme Court as contained in the orders of May 7, 2008 and February 2, 2009 and punish them for committing the contempt of the orders of this court," the Sangathan's petition said.
Writers and Publishers had proposed to invest Rs 102 crore to make Super Bazar's net worth positive and Rs 276 crore towards working capital after withdrawal of the liquidation order. It has pledged another Rs 126 crore for the revival and revamping of business of Super Bazar.
The government had invited bids in May 2006 after the
Supreme Court asked the Centre to examine ways to revive the
cooperative super market.
Super Bazar had around 40,000 shareholders, 156 branches,
15 mobile vans and other units functional in and around Delhi
at the time of its closure.
PTI
First Published: Monday, November 23, 2009, 21:41