Bharti Group promoter Rajan Bharti Mittal will soon be able to move into a much-coveted bungalow at Amrita Shergil Marg, just a few houses away from his brother, Sunil Mittal. The high court here on Friday upheld the auction in which Rajan Mittal was the highest bidder, at a little over Rs 156 crore. This is among the biggest deals in residential realty in recent times.
The 3,500 sq yd bungalow, on a road houses other wealthy industrialists, has been under litigation since 1980. Rajan Mittal had bid for the bungalow at Rs 156.5 crore. A co-owner, Shivraj Kishan Gupta, bid higher at Rs 165 crore but only after the Mittal tender was opened. The auction was challenged by Gupta. The arguments in the case were concluded last week and judgement pronounced on Friday. The HC was overseeing the auction.
The deal is expected to push up prices in the city’s premium locations. Cushman and Wakefield executive managing director Sanjay Dutt told Business Standard, “Properties which have certain pin codes in any city and are associated with ultra-rich and high net worth individuals will always command a premium and be recession-free because of limited supply.”
Ajay Piramal had bought a one-acre sea-facing property from Hindustan Unilever at Worli in Mumbai for Rs 452.5 crore. A recent report by Jones Lang LaSalle, an international consultancy, said, “While the man on the street continues to wonder when he will be able to buy a modest home of his own, India’s super-rich are raising palatial homes at truly astronomical expense.” It added that Antilia, the 27-storey fortress home of Mukesh Ambani at Altamount Road in South Mumbai was being talked of as the most expensive residence in the world. And, it said, Vijay Mallya had levelled his 4.5-acre ancestral home on Vittal Mallya Road in Bangalore to make way for an 82-apartment ‘White House’, in which he will be occupying an acre-sized ‘palace penthouse’ on the 33rd and 34th floors.
Mittal had already paid 25 per cent of the total bid value of Rs 156.5 crore. It was reported that he’d paid the rest of the bid amount, too, but this could not be confirmed. The third party to participate in the auction was K D Singh, owner of the Alchemist group and Rajya Sabha member from the Trinamool Congress. His bid was around Rs 140.5 crore, just a notch above the reserve price of Rs 140 crore.
The case can be traced back to four Gupta brothers-Brij Kishan Gupta, Chandra Kishan Gupta, Gopal Kishan Gupta and Avtar Kishan Gupta. Two of them, Brij Kishan and Gopal Kisha, have expired. Shivraj, the main litigant, is the heir of Brij Kishan. Gopal Kishan’s son, Balraj Kishan, and daughter Anjali were also fighting the case. The auction was triggered by a property dispute among the Gupta brothers. The first partition suit was filed in the HC in 1980.
A number of lawyers had argued in the case, including senior advocates.