for their previous business deals, suddenly came to buy a Rs 122 crore
property in Lutyens' Delhi four months ago, thanks to some
controversial Delhi HC orders.
Chetan and Nitin Sabharwal, along with partner Kabul Chawla, chief
of real estate company BPTP, turned out to be the ultimate
beneficiaries of HC orders passed since 2006 on the auction of the
2.70-acre property at 7 Sikandra Road. A plea challenging the April
2010 sale deed revealed that the three had not participated in an
auction in September 2006 in which a two-judge bench declared Triveni
Infrastructure the highest bidder. It was required to pay 25% of bid
amount, Rs 117 crore, in a week and the balance in three weeks only if
the property is converted from leasehold to freehold.
But Triveni became liable to pay the 75% component only in
February 2009 as the property was converted to freehold only then. It
was then that a succession of single-judge orders, in breach of the
schedule laid down by the larger bench, resulted in the payment being
finally made, with a Rs 5 crore penalty, in April 2010, that too by
the two Sabharwals and Chawla although they had no formal stake in
Triveni. The appeal being heard by a special bench headed by Justice A
K Sikri shed light on the various ways in which the 2006 order had
been bypassed, particularly by Justice Manmohan Singh:
When the owners of the property filed a contempt plea against
Triveni for its failure to pay the balance in February 2009, Justice
Singh gave more time to the defaulter directing that it would have to
pay Rs 3 crore by July and Rs 85 crore by October. Later, he extended
the time to December with a penalty of Rs 5 crore
The repeated extension of the deadline was contrary to the
division bench's direction that if the highest bidder failed to pay on
time, the property would have to be sold to the next highest bidder,
Prime Commercial
In June 2009, Justice Singh allowed a four-day old company, Angle
Infrastructure, to come in place of Triveni for paying the balance and
to take over the property. The owners of the property appealed against
this order as it had been passed without any notice to them
A week before the expiry of the December 2009 deadline, Justice
Singh gave a fresh extension to Angle, this time by five months. He
also granted Angle's request to introduce the condition that it would
be required to pay the balance only when the owners were in a position
to ensure immediate possession. Most of the owners challenged this
order, as it had been passed without their notice
A month before the expiry of the May 2010 deadline, Triveni and
Angle filed a joint application requesting that the balance be allowed
to be paid by the Sabharwals and Chawla and that the property be
registered in their names. Since the trio appeared in the court with
demand drafts of the balance, Justice Rajiv Shakdher directed the
owners on April 20 to execute the sale deed within two days
That is how the three acquired the property from an auction in
which they had not participated at all. The appeal filed subsequently
by the second highest bidder, Prime, challenged the manner in which
the court had granted undue concessions to Triveni and deprived it of
its entitlement under the auction terms.
The 7 Sikandra Road bungalow, auctioned in 2006, was sold for Rs 122cr
in April 2010
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