Bombay HC sets Rs 37,392 Cr for Sahara's Aamby Valley public auction

New Delhi: The Bombay High Court's Office of Official Liquidator on Monday puts up Sahara Group's Aamby Valley city project in Pune for public auction for a reserve price of Rs. 37,392 Crore, four days after the Supreme Court declined Sahara chief Subrata Roy's plea to put the auction on hold.

A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, refused to give any relief to Sahara.

However, Kapil Sibal, lawyer appearing for Sahara, pleaded to the apex court for giving an extension, but was rejected by the top court.

Earlier, the apex court had directed Roy to deposit Rs. 1,500 crore in the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)-Sahara account by September 7.

The SEBI had alleged that the company's chairman, Roy, had failed to comply with the 2012 apex court order directing him to return investors more than Rs. 20,000 crore with 15 percent interest that his two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and the Sahara Housing Finance Corp Ltd had raised through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2007 and 2008.

The Sahara group vehemently denied the allegations of the SEBI and claimed to pay more than 80 percent of the dues to the bondholders, but the market regulator, SEBI, disputed that and said they have not paid more than Rs. 9,000 crore dues.