On Thursday morning, the vehicles owned by Vijay Construction were put up for sale at the Palais de Justice.
The beginning bids for the auction's 41 automobiles ranged from SCR60,000 to SCR850,000.
Vehicles from Vijay Construction are up for auction in Seychelles
On Thursday morning, the vehicles owned by Vijay Construction were put up for sale at the Palais de Justice. A portion of the company's €33 million debt to the Russian firm Eastern European Engineering Limited will be settled with the auction's proceeds (EEEL).
The auction occurred less than three months after the Seychelles Court of Appeal dismissed Vijay Construction's appeal and upheld the Supreme Court's judgment.
The court ordered Vijay to pay Eastern European Engineering Limited's legal fees (EEEL).
Justice Ellen Carolus of the Supreme Court decided on June 30, 2020, that Vijay must pay EEEL following a U.K. court order from 2015. Vijay contested this verdict. The beginning bids for the auction's 41 vehicles ranged from SCR60,000 ($4,682) to SCR850,000 ($66,325).
Before the auction's start time of 10 a.m., the automobiles were open for public viewing at 8:30 a.m. Pickup trucks, sedans, and even two luxury cars—a Lexus and a Mercedes Benz—were among the seized vehicles.
All the cars were sold except the Mercedes Benz and a JCB digger. However, the bidding for the two automobiles will go on today's morning.
One of the biggest businesses in Seychelles, Vijay Construction, is currently working on several construction projects.
They were founded in 1979 in Seychelles by V.J. On the east coast of Mahe, the central island of Patel, Vijay Construction was created and commissioned to build several significant developments, including the Eden Island project.
Construction project dispute
The legal dispute concerns the EEEL's 2011 use of six contracts to hire Vijay Building to complete construction work for the Savoy Hotel. Similar arbitration clauses were added in each of the six contracts, stipulating that any claim, disagreement, or dispute would be resolved by arbitration in Paris.
In September 2012, the corporation filed an Arbitration Request with the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. In November 2014, a solitary arbitrator award was issued.
The expenses spent by Vijay Construction for breach of contract were never paid in part. This is because the award was not enforceable until earlier this year, when Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, became a party to the 1958 New York Convention.
The Seychelles Constitutional Court dismissed Vijay Construction's complaint against the EEEL in November 2020, citing that a competent court had already dealt with the matter.