MUMBAI, April 5 -- The Esplanade Metropolitan Magistrate Court recently appointed a court commissioner to take over a large chunk of land at Nahur belonging to Nirmal Lifestyle Developers and Nirmal Lifestyle Malls to recover an outstanding loan of Rs.1,179.41 crore Chief judicial magistrate Archana K Mandavgade appointed advocate Pratik Surti as court commissioner to take possession of the properties, which together span about 193,000 sq.m. The land will be handed over to Phoenix ARC, an asset reconstruction company, a company that specialises in buying non-performing assets or "bad loans" and then recovering the money. The court directed the commissioner to give a 15-day advance notice to all concerned parties before taking possession of the land. If needed, the advocate is allowed to use reasonable force, including breaking open locks, and can seek police assistance. Any items or documents found on the premises must be secured and handed over to Phoenix ARC's authorised officer. The order came on a plea filed by Phoenix ARC, which had taken over the loans originally given by L&T Finance to the two real estate firms by mortgaging the land parcels. The properties include 92,672 sq.m earmarked for development by Elevated Avenue Realty LLP, 36,911 sq.m handed over to the BMC, 26,667 sq.m where the residential project is under development, 27,281 sq.m with a partially constructed mall. As per the plea, L&T Finance had given out loans worth Rs.894.30 crore between July 2017 and February 2022. The loan account later turned into a non-performing asset in December 2022. After earlier recovery efforts failed, Phoenix ARC issued a formal demand asking the borrowers to repay Rs.1,179.41 crore within 60 days. When the loans remained unpaid, Phoenix ARC approached the court seeking permission to take possession of the properties to proceed with recovery....