Supreme Court notice to Leela Group for 18K sq metre plot in Mumbai

A bench led by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar issued a notice to the Group and gave it four weeks to submit a response regarding alleged non-payment for occupying the prime plot of the land near the Mumbai airport.

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Supreme Court. (File Photo)

Regretting that “precious influential people were getting extreme favours”, the Supreme Court Monday sought an explanation from the Leela Group over its alleged failure to pay for the 18,000 sq metre plot leased to the conglomerate in Mumbai.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar issued a notice to the Group and gave it four weeks to submit a response regarding alleged non-payment for occupying the prime plot of the land near the Mumbai airport. The court wondered how the Central government and the Airports Authority of India kept granting extensions to the Group despite its failure to clear the past dues. “Your own affidavit says that there is a total dues of Rs 285 crore for all the properties leased to Respondent No. 3 (Leela). But you kept granting them extension. Do you give this favour to everyone or was this respondent special? We hope one day you also give us this kind of money to sit on,” remarked the bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and Sanjay K Kaul.

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Appearing for the government and the AAI, Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand said that the lease has been terminated in September last year and that proceedings under the requisite statutes have also been initiated to recover the money. “We are also bound by the laws. We have gone by the statutes and taking all the steps required,” said the ASG but not refute the fact that the Leela Group was given an extension to occupy the land even though it had not cleared the past dues.

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Read | Land leased to Leela Group Mumbai: Are you hand in glove with people who don’t pay, asks SC to Centre

“What do we say now? Precious influential people getting extreme favours…had not this petition been filed, you would have perhaps let them continue without paying. But we cannot let this go on any further. We won’t allow you to keep this matter hanging. This must be decided now,” retorted the bench.

It then sought to have a formal response from the Leela Group on record since they had not been issued a notice in the matte so far. “Issue notice, returnable in four weeks,” stated the order. On February 6, the bench, while making an obvious reference to elusive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, had asked the Central government if it was “hand in glove” with people who do not pay and run away from this country.

The court had called it “very unfortunate” that the government was “still making requests” to defaulters and had not gone ahead to effectively retrieve monies through attachment and auction of their properties. It was hearing a petition filed by ‘Resources of Aviation Redressal Association’, which had pleaded the court to order for auctioning of 18000 sq metre plot leased to the Leela Group.

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According to the PIL in the Bombay High Court, the hotel was initially paying a “paltry sum of Rs 2.2 lakh” as lease for the prime land. The High Court had however disposed of the plea last year by observing that issues of public auction could not be determined in a PIL, prompting the group to make an appeal in the top court.

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