Saying bookings will be cancelled and flats will be sold to other buyers, the Supreme Court on Thursday took a dim view on home buyers not turning up to take possession of flats in the Amrapali projects, being completed by the state-owned NBCC.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma asked attorney general R Venkataramani, who was appointed a court receiver in the case, to furnish the latest status report of unsold assets or where the home buyers did not turn up despite efforts to reach out to them.
"We will request the court receiver to file a latest report where possession has not been taken over by the home buyers despite efforts by him and the NBCC," the bench said.
Senior advocate Ravinder Kumar, appearing for the Noida and Greater Noida authority informed the bench that Greater Noida authority had granted its approval for construction of additional flats in Gold Home Project and with regard to other five projects, there was need for some compliances to be made by the NBCC.
The bench noted the submission of senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for the NBCC, saying the compliance was regarding uploading of the map in a portal, which was done for the four projects – Centurion Park, Leisure Valley, Leisure Park and Dream Valley.
The bench directed the Greater Noida authority to grant approval for the remaining four projects.
For Silicon City project located under Noida's jurisdiction, the bench directed the authority to grant expeditious approval for the additional flats.
The top court further directed the Uttar Pradesh government authority to grant required environmental clearances to these projects as early as possible.
Dave informed the bench NBCC required more Rs 500 crore for completing the project aside from an outstanding amount of Rs 343 crore which was put in by the corporation for completing the project.
Advocate ML Lahoty, appearing for the home buyers, said his client wouldn't be able to pay the money and a consortium of banks had paid Rs 1,600 crore to the NBCC apart from State Bank of India, which infused Rs 650 crore for completing the pending projects.
He alleged in 2024, the NBCC said it had completed 20,000 flats but home buyers were given only 7,000 flats and the rest 13,000 flats were lying somewhere.
Venkataramani urged Lahoty not to make such a submission as the information was factually wrong.
He said around 3,000-4,000 home buyers did not turn up to take the possession of their flats despite repeated attempts to reach out to them and offered to file a detailed project-wise report on such flats.
The top court disposed of a number of pending petitions observing the cause of action was addressed in the main petition on the Amrapali project.
The bench said petitioners of disposed of matters could take proper recourse available under law.
On August 29, 2024, the top court directed the Noida and Greater Noida authorities to grant approval within 30 days of construction plans for additional flats in six Amrapali projects to ease the financial crunch faced by these projects.
It had also directed the Uttar Pradesh environment impact assessment authority to grant environment clearance within two months of submission of application.
The apex court in its July 23, 2019, verdict had cracked whip on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by home buyers and ordered the cancellation of the registration of Amrapali group under real estate law RERA and ousted it from prime properties in the NCR by nixing land leases.
The top court, which is trying to bring in funds for the stalled projects, appointed a court receiver as custodian of the properties of Amrapali group.
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