SC Asks Amrapali Buyers to Clear Dues or Face Flats' Cancellation

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The Supreme Court on 3rd September warned that the flat buyers of Amrapali Group who are not clearing their dues as per the payment plan should not be in any kind of delusion as their units can be cancelled and will be considered as unsold inventory. A special bench of Justice U U Lalit and Ajay Rastogi observed that the home buyers are under the impression that the court is facilitating construction of their stalled flats and managing funds and they are at a convenience to pay their dues, whenever they like. "They will have to strictly follow their payment plans else their unit will be cancelled and will be considered as unsold inventory," the bench said. Senior advocate R Venkataramani, appointed as court receiver submitted that some mistakes have been noticed in the list of 9,538 flats, which are unclaimed or booked on a fictitious name or are a benami property and is being corrected and the final list will be published in two-three days. Advocate ML Lahoty, assisted by advocate Anchit Sripat appearing for home buyers, said that, "He had some discussions with officials of the NBCC recently in which they have said that if Rs 200 crores are made available to them, then the company would be in a position to handover around 2000-2500 flats situated in stalled projects of Amrapali Group by December, 2021." Lahoty suggested that sale of unused/permissible FAR (Floor Area Ratio) can fetch an amount of over Rs 1000 crores and therefore, the said issue can be considered by the court on priority. He said that, "Large numbers of home buyers, who have booked the flat in Amrapali projects under the subvention scheme, are suffering due to the default of the developer, as the flat buyers have started receiving demand notices from the Banks and have been threatened with recovery proceedings." The bench asked if all the home buyers especially of these 2000-2500 units be able to clear their dues by October 15 as per the payment plan. The bench said that, "It can direct that if the home buyers fail to make payment of their dues their entitlement to the flats may be cancelled. Homebuyers want the flats but don't want to pay the money. They just want the NBCC to construct the flats and hand over to them", the bench observed. The bench asked Venkataramani, that why there was such delay by home buyers to pay their dues and suggested that he should issue notice to the persons, who have not cleared their dues saying that if the payments are not paid, their allotments will be cancelled. Venkataramani said that, "Most of the home buyers are paying their dues as per the payment plan except for those whose payment is through bank loans, which have been stuck for one problem or other." The top court asked the banks to respond to the intervention applications filed by such home buyers within a week. Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for NBCC said that, "Despite the implications on account of COVID-19 Pandemic, NBCC is making all efforts towards the successful completion of various projects of the Amrapali group situated in Noida and Greater Noida." He said that, "At present, 10 projects in Noida and 12 projects in Greater Noida are under execution involving 45,957 units with sanctioned project cost of Rs 8025.78 Crores." Venkataramani told the bench that six banks, which include Bank of Baroda, UCO Bank and Bank of India, have formed a consortium to fund the stalled projects of Amrapali Group and are likely to start funding the stalled Projects within a month. Dave pointed to the top court that a written petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court by a firm seeking to be appointed as channel partner for sale of housing units and commercial areas of various erstwhile Amrapali Projects at Noida and Greater Noida.