On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a stay of the arbitral proceedings that former India captain MS Dhoni had started against the Amrapali group of enterprises, which is no longer in business and for which the cricketer served as the brand ambassador.
In order to “illegally divert” property buyers’ money, Amrapali Group engaged in “sham agreements” with Rhiti Sports Management Pvt Ltd (RSMPL), which promotes the brand of Dhoni, according to forensic auditors hired by the Supreme Court. From 2009 to 2015, a total of Rs 42.22 crore was paid to RSMPL.
Captain Cool filed a petition with the Delhi High Court, which on October 16, 2019, appointed Veena Birbal, a former judge there, as the sole arbitrator to settle the business dispute between the player and the real estate company.
The court-appointed receiver on Monday informed a bench made up of justices U U Lalit and Bela M Trivedi about the ongoing arbitration processes between MS Dhoni and the defunct real estate enterprises and the challenges he would face in pursuing them.
The high court stated in the judgment that it had taken cognizance of the issues in order to protect the interests of the home buyers and had appointed a court receiver to oversee the timely completion of housing projects and the distribution of units to the buyers.
“In view of these, it would be extremely difficult for the receiver to defend and take care of such litigations…It cannot be expected that the erstwhile management or anybody else can represent the Amrapali group of companies before the learned sole arbitrator,” the bench said.
The highest court gave the cricketer notice and asked Justice Birbal to “hold her hands” and stop the arbitration.
CSK captain Dhoni filed a petition with the top court in April 2019 asking for protection of his ownership rights over a more than 5,500-square-foot penthouse he reserved in an Amrapali Group project more than ten years prior.
The apex court has been keeping an eye on several housing developments being constructed by the NBCC in place of the defunct real estate business. By canceling Amrapali Group’s registration under the real estate code RERA and evicting it from desirable properties in the NCR by removing land leases, the top court gave errant builders the boot for betraying the faith placed in them by homebuyers.
