AG opposes Jaypee plan in Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: Attorney General KK Venugopal on Tuesday strongly opposed in the Supreme Court a proposal by Jaiprakash Associates to hive off the Yamuna expressway to a Singapore-based company to raise Rs 2,000 crore it had been asked to deposit to meet refund demands by homebuyers for projects. Technically, the Yamuna Expressway is owned by its subsidiary Jaypee Infratech, which is currently facing insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal ( NCLT) at the behest of a consortium of banks, to which it owes over Rs 9,000 crore as debt.

The consortium is led by IDBI bank. The deadline for depositing Rs 2,000 crore is November 5. Till then the court has restrained company directors from travelling abroad. After that the parent company sought court nod to hive off the expressway it operates on a BOT basis to a Singaporean company to raise the money. IDBI, represented by Abhishek Manu Singhvi, has opposed it. As did the AG.

“This asset is already mortgaged to the financial institutions,” he said. Neither can it be transferred or assigned to a third party, he said. The claim was backed by the Yamuna expressway Authority which said that the asset reverts back to the state after 36 years and it was not open to the idea. IDBI said the asset was a subsidiary company’s that was facing insolvency resolution proceedings.

Appearing for the parent company, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said that if this was plan were to be disallowed both companies would go into liquidation. “We want to build the 24,000 odd flats,” he said.