SC seeks response from Centre on time needed to process Amrapali Group's application for funding from stressed asset fund

The Supreme Court, on December 16, directed the Centre to respond to its query on the turnaround time it will take to decide on the application filed by Amrapali Group to access money from the Rs 25,000 crore stressed fund set up by the government to complete stalled projects, sources said.

The next date of hearing is on January 10.

During an earlier hearing on December 2, the Court had directed the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vikramjeet Banerjee to seek instructions on whether the Amrapali Group can access funds from the Rs 25,000 crore fund to complete stalled projects.

The fund was announced by the government on November 6 for which SBICAP Ventures is the alternative asset manager.

The ASG informed the Court that the Amrapali Group would have to file an application that gave details on the project, and that funding would be disbursed provided the project qualifies for it as per the guidelines.

The Supreme Court then directed the Centre to inform by December 24 as to how much time it will take to decide on application for financing the stalled projects of the embattled realty firm Amrapali Group from the stress fund.

The bench said it can issue directions to the Court receiver to give an application in this regard, but it needs to know how much time it would take to process Amrapali Group’s application to secure funding from the stress fund to complete the stalled projects.

The Court also asked the government’s construction arm, the NBCC, to fast-track completion of category-A projects of Amrapali, so that they can be sold and the amount could be used for financing other smaller projects.

“NBCC has been asked to choose four to five projects that can be taken up immediately. The court receiver has been asked to submit a proposal with details on how much money would be required to complete the projects. The proposal should state how much money has to be deposited by the buyers of these projects, the amount that can be generated from unsold inventory. Give us a proposal and we will then pass the order,” advocate Mihir Kumar told Moneycontrol.

The court receiver also informed the Court that registrations would begin from next week.

During the hearing, the Court also expressed annoyance over the manner in which government-owned Metal Scrap Trade Corporation (MSTC) was working in auctioning the properties of Amrapali Group.

It said that the court has to withdraw properties from Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) which was earlier entrusted with the auctioning of Amrapali properties as there was cartelisation taking place, and proper amount was not fetched even for prime properties.

The Supreme Court said that if the same situation prevails, then it may withdraw the properties from MSTC from auctioning them.

It also asked the Banerjee to inform the court about the steps taken by the corporation on the auctioning front.

At an earlier date, the court had directed the government-owned MSTC to auction a fleet of 86 luxury cars attached on the Court's order from the Amrapali Group of companies to garner funds for the pending projects.

On December 16, the Supreme Court also agreed to hear a plea by homebuyers seeking it pass a direction to recover Rs 42.22 crore paid by the Amrapali group to former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni as endorsement fee

On December 2, the Supreme Court had directed thousands of Amrapali home buyers to pay outstanding amounts by January 31 either in installments, or at one-go for the speedy completion of all stalled projects.

On September 11, the Supreme Court had warned homebuyers that their unwillingness to pay the outstanding dues may lead to winding up of the stalled projects due to financial crunch.

On July 23, the Supreme Court had cracked its whip on errant builders for breaching the trust of homebuyers, and ordered the cancellation of the registration of the Amrapali Group under the real estate law RERA, and ousted it from its prime properties in the NCR by nixing the land leases.

The top court also termed the sequence of events in Amrapali group a "shocking and surprising state of affairs" where such large-scale cheating has taken place and middle and low-income home buyers were duped and deprived of their hard-earned money.