The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the National Company Law Tribunal order permitting the Centre to take over the management of embattled realty firm Unitech Ltd, though acknowledge Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal statesmanship to make a clean breast that the supervision should not have approached the tribunal at the same time as the case was pending before the highest court of the land.

A Bench consist of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud took on record Venugopal's apology for moving the tribunal.

The Court asserted it would hear the case on January 12, 2018.

The Court has stood unyielding by the distressed home buyers and has been hearing the matter so that their investments can be returned securely back to them.

NCLT, on December 8, suspended all the eight directors of the landed property firm over allegations of unprofessional conduct and drain off funds and had authorized the Centre to appoint its 10 candidates on the board. The NCLT order had come after the Centre moved the panel with a view to protect the interest of almost 20,000 home buyers.

Sanjay Chandra, chief of the real estate group, was questioned on October 30 by the top court to deposit ₹750 crore with it by December-end for the sake of the homebuyers. NCLT.