Rupandehi District Court has issued a contempt of court notice to Tiger One Private Limited, operator of the Tiger Palace Resort in Bhairahawa, ordering the company to explain why it wilfully disobeyed the court’s order related to the alleged encroachment of public land.

On July 5, 2019, the court had issued an interim order to Tiger One and Silver Heritage Investment of Tilottama Municipality-7 forbidding it to sell shares or build anything on the plot where the five-star Tiger Palace Resort stands, pending a full verdict on a writ petition charging encroachment on public land.

District Judge Lila Adhikari issued the contempt of court notice on August 13, and has ordered Tiger One to present written replies within 15 days, according to the court documents seen by the Post.

“The companies have disobeyed the court order," said Awadh Bihari Dubey, general secretary of the water users group under the Bhairahawa-Lumbini Ground Water Irrigation Project, who filed the contempt case. “The company did not maintain the status quo in the case.”

In 2019, the Bhairahawa-Lumbini Ground Water Irrigation Project had filed a writ demanding the recovery of 9 katthas (3,205 square metres) of public land.

The project has accused the resort of encroaching on plot numbers 120, 148, 152 and 190 belonging to a public canal and plot number 73 belonging to the government.

Tiger One is the locally registered subsidiary of the Australian-listed Silver Heritage Group. The group debuted in Nepal in 2015 with the opening of The Millionaire’s Club & Casino at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kathmandu. In 2017, it opened the 100-room Tiger Palace Resort in Bhairahawa, which is the first integrated five-star casino resort in South Asia.

According to the petitioners, the court orders dated July 5, 2019 and August 14, 2019 state that the shares of Tiger One, land and physical infrastructure cannot be transferred and that the status quo must be maintained. This order of Rupandehi District Court has been upheld by the High Court Butwal.

"The opponent has captured government land and constructed infrastructure, and they are not eligible to do so. In the context of the petition claim to that extent, the defendants have conducted purchase and sale of shares, undergone agreements and constructed physical structures including a new house and party hall on the land, which is in contempt of court. Thus a miscellaneous criminal case should be filed against the defendants,” the document states.

“The court may give another 15 days if the defendants fail to furnish a clarification with proof,” said Dubey.

Documents obtained by the Post show that sale and purchase agreements of the shares and properties of Silver Heritage Investment were completed on August 3. According to the documents, the buyers are US-based Manhattan Heights Group, Bhusal Investment of Bhairahawa and Kathmandu-based Samrat Group.

“All these sale and purchase agreements are illegal as the case is sub judice. The court has halted any transaction of the company,” said Dubey.

The Silver Heritage Group did not respond to the Post's request for comment.

The shares and properties have been valued at Rs4.10 billion, according to a source privy to the matter. The properties include a casino housed in the Shangri-La Hotel in Kathmandu, around 11 bighas of land belonging to the Tiger Two project in Jhapa, and the Tiger Palace Casino Resort spread over 17 bighas of land in Bhairahawa.

Built at a cost of Rs6 billion, the Tiger Palace Resort has been valued at Rs3.97 billion, the source said.

The Silver Heritage Group has put its property on the market several times. In August 2019, non-resident Nepali Indra Bahadur Thapa had offered to buy the Tiger Palace Resort in Bhairahawa at an enterprise value of $33.9 million. But the deal fell through after Thapa failed to come up with the money.

At that time, three Nepali business houses—Chaudhary Group, IME Group and Vishal Group—were in the fray to buy the resort after the Silver Heritage Group put it up for sale or partnership.

The 100-room property is the first integrated five-star casino resort in South Asia. Silver Heritage had planned to offer 400 guest rooms in the second phase. It was awarded a five-star rating by the Department of Tourism in November 2017.

Tiger Palace is spread over 17 bighas and features two villas, a gym, spa, swimming pools, restaurants and meeting and banquet facilities suitable for weddings. The resort has a 2,471 square-metre casino floor.