The Supreme Court on Thursday told flat buyers, who had sought refund of their money from Unitech Resorts Ltd, to withdraw Rs 2 crore deposited by the realty firm to the apex court registry. The bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Bhanumathi told the 39 petitioners that they can withdraw the money on a pro-rata basis, meaning the Rs 2 corpus will be divided among them equally. The rate of interest and compensation to be paid to the investors will be decided on February 4, reported PTI.
Unitech had to pay the amount for delay in handing over the flats in its Vista housing project in Gurgaon. The flat buyers had, in total, deposited Rs 16.55 crore to book the flats.
On August 17, 2016, the Supreme Court had ordered Unitech to deposit Rs 15 crore. While it asked the firm to deposit Rs 5 crore with the apex court’s registry within two weeks, the court gave time to the company till September-end to deposit the remaining amount.
The investors had first approached the national consumer forum, alleging that the project was running behind schedule by three years and was nowhere close to completion. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission then slapped a fine on the firm and asked it to hand over the flats.
Unitech had earlier challenged the forum’s order in the Supreme Court. The real estate major then pleaded for leniency and said that it did not have enough money to pay the buyers. The court then asked for a list of buyers who wanted to get their money back from the company.
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