Canara College bought struggling Vikas College for ₹82 crore in 2022, sale deed reveals

Mangaluru

The Canara High School Association has acquired the properties and assets of Vikas Education Trust, Mangaluru, for a staggering ₹82 crore, according to a registered sale deed executed in September 2022.

The sale deed shows that Vikas Education Trust (Regd), Mangaluru, represented by its then Managing Trustee and Chairman/President M. R. Krishna Palemar, sold and conveyed its immovable and movable properties to the Canara High School Association, represented by its Honorary Secretary Manjeshwar Ranganath Bhat. It should be noted that Palemar is a former minister. 

The transaction was registered on September 29, 2022, with the document describing the Canara High School Association as the purchaser and Vikas Education Trust as the vendor. The Blrpost.com has a copy of the sale deed.

According to the deed, Vikas Education Trust had decided to sell its properties after finding it difficult to manage and continue running its educational institutions. The decision to sell was taken through a resolution dated August 15, 2022, with the trustees unanimously resolving to dispose of the immovable and movable properties.

The Canara High School Association, which has been running schools and colleges for more than a century, subsequently expressed interest in taking over the assets and properties of Vikas Education Trust. The association passed a resolution on August 18, 2022, agreeing to purchase the properties with the stated intention of continuing and enhancing the educational activities.

The document specifically records that the purchaser paid a total consideration of ₹82 crore to the Vikas Education Trust.

Of this, ₹10 crore was treated as advance consideration. The amount included payments of ₹1.98 crore, ₹3.96 crore and another ₹3.96 crore through cheques drawn on Canara Bank’s Founders Branch in Mangaluru. A further ₹10 lakh was deducted as tax deducted at source (TDS).

The balance consideration of ₹72 crore was subsequently paid through a series of cheques. The biggest single payment was ₹64.35 crore, while three separate payments of ₹2.50 crore each were also made, according to the sale deed.

The deed further states that the purchaser would acquire all the title, rights and interests of the vendor over the scheduled property and the movable assets included in the transaction.

Interestingly, the document traces the ownership of the property to its acquisition by the Government of Karnataka under the Karnataka Land Acquisition Act, 1894. According to the deed, the land had been allotted to Vikas Education Trust for running educational institutions under an award passed in Award No. 3/2001-02.

The registration records accompanying the sale deed show that stamp duty and registration-related charges amounting to more than ₹45 lakh were paid for the transaction.

The ₹82-crore deal made a major change in the ownership and management of the Vikas educational institutions and their properties in Mangaluru, with the Canara High School Association taking over assets that had earlier been held by the Vikas Education Trust.