Will appoint receiver and auction assets, SC tells Unitech`s Sanjay Chandra

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will appoint a court commissioner as the receiver of real estate major Unitech`s properties to realise the Rs 7,600 crore to be paid to home buyers if they opt for refund of the amount given for buying flats.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Amitava Roy and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar also said that they would put to auction the assets of Unitech for realising the money. 

The court said this as amicus curiae Pawan Agrawal told the court that in 61 projects of the real estate major there are 16,300 flat buyers with total involvement of Rs 7,816 crore.

"We will put to auction," Chief Justice Misra said as counsel for Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director of Unitech, urged the court to set him free for six months and he will build the flats and also mobilise the money to pay the home buyers who wish to opt out. 

"I will go down the drain. Give me six months` time to arrange the finances. Let my business cycle start. Out of Rs 272 crore that were decreed against me, I have already paid Rs 141 crore," Chandra`s counsel Abhimanyu Bhandari told the bench. 

Pointing out that all over the world real estate companies go into the red and he was the only one in jail, Bhandari urged the court to allow his client to go to his office.