The Supreme Court on Wednesday warned real estate major Amrapali Group that “each and every property” of managing directors and directors of the firm would be sold to recover the cost of construction of its pending projects.
“The real problem is that you have delayed giving possession of homes,” a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit said, according to PTI. “Don’t play smart or we will render you homeless.”
The company had earlier told the Supreme Court that it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over possession of flats to over 42,000 homebuyers in a time-bound manner.
The bench asked the group to submit within 15 days a valuation report of movable and immovable properties of its managing director and directors. The top court also asked the real estate firm to file a concrete proposal by August 14 to raise Rs 4,000 crore by selling its properties for completion of pending projects by National Buildings Construction Corporation India Limited.
The court’s direction came after the group submitted a proposal to sell commercial properties worth Rs 400 crore as against the expected cost of Rs 4,000 crore to be incurred in completing its pending projects.
The top court also sought details of companies that were looking after the maintenance of Amrapali projects and the funds they have collected and disbursed so far, Hindustan Times reported. It also directed power companies to immediately restore the supply of electricity to two projects in Noida – Zodiac and Silicon City – and said their arrears will be paid.
The top court then asked for details of its serving directors and those who have left the Amrapali group since 2008.
During the hearing, Advocate Gaurav Bhatia, appearing for Amrapali, said it can raise Rs 6,119 crore, including Rs 5,112 crore dues from home buyers and remaining from its unsold inventories. The bench, however, said it will not allow the group to collect money from homebuyers and it was the firm which should pay them for delayed possession of flats.
On August 1, the Supreme Court ordered the attachment of all bank accounts and movable properties of 40 companies owned by Amrapali Group.
The top court is hearing a batch of petitions filed by homebuyers seeking to have the insolvency proceedings, which the National Company Law Tribunal initiated against the Amrapali Group, quashed. They claimed that the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, violated their fundamental rights as they prioritised lending institutions.
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