Vijay Construction barrels towards bankruptcy as judge demands proof of payment | 25 July 2020

Vijay Construction won a small victory in court yesterday when judge Ellen Carolus granted their stay of execution application which temporarily suspended the freezing of their assets.

In yesterday’s ruling Judge Carolus noted that taking into consideration the circumstances of this case and after balancing the competing rights and interests of the parties, the Supreme Court ordered that the stay of execution be granted to Vijay Construction with the condition that within 14 days of the date of this ruling, Vijay Construction provides security in the form of a bank guarantee in the sum of twenty million euros (€20,000,000) pending determination of the appeal against the judgment of June 30, 2020.

In layman’s term this judgement means that they have 14 days to show the court they have the money in their bank account to pay Eastern European Engineering Limited (EEEL). If they fail to meet this deadline the stay of execution will fall through and the judgement will be carried out and EEEL will seize all their assets.

Things however are looking bleak for Vijay Construction as their attorney Bernard Georges noted that their assets do not come close to the €20.2 million that they owe.

Speaking to the press, Mr Georges noted that the judgement today (yesterday) is bittersweet as the stay of execution has been granted but the conditions given are simply ludicrous as they are basically telling Vijay Construction to pay the judgement and take their chances on appeal.

“The next step is to meet with the board of directors of Vijay Construction where they will decide what the next step will be,” said lawyer Georges.

Mr Georges noted that even if all odds are against Vijay Construction they will still fight till the end as the judgement that was given to them are completely wrong as they did not breach any contract as EEEL terminated their contract first.

Vijay Construction has been in operations for more than four decades and the case against the company has seen multiple courtrooms all over the world which has led many to speculate that they have had ample time to move their money overseas as to protect some of their assets.

Commenting on this Mr Georges claimed that these speculations are nothing more than rumours as he has been the Patel’s lawyer for more than 25 years and it is not the way they operate their business.

As Vijay Construction heads towards bankruptcy, the impact of them losing this case will have an indirect effect on everyone, not only will 1,500 people lose their job but a large some of foreign exchange will be taken out of the country.

Christophe Zialor