The Supreme Court has cancelled the registration of Amrapali Group and ordered the Enforcement Directorate to charge the builders with fraud and money laundering. The court has asked the state-owned National Buildings Construction Corporation to finish the incomplete projects.
ThePrint asks: Has Supreme Court done justice to Amrapali home buyers or has it passed the buck to govt?
Supreme Court has laid clear rules for project completion and given orders in favour of home buyers
M. Ramachandran
Former Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development
The Supreme Court judgment is significant because clear relief has been provided to the home buyers by laying down the course of action for completion of work. Some critical directions that could become future guidelines in favour of the home buyers have also been given.
The Supreme Court has ordered the NBCC, a government body, to get the construction work completed. It has directed the Noida/Greater Noida authorities and banks not to sell the flats for realisation of their dues. It has also ordered that RERA registration can now be directly cancelled.
Besides these, the Supreme Court has given some general guidelines as to how to deal with situations where developers fail to deliver. Government and regulatory agencies have been directed to take action against all builders lagging behind in finishing their projects. If dues are not paid, their lease deeds will be cancelled. RERA’s responsibility – that it must ensure timely completion of projects – has been re-emphasised. Banks, too, have been warned not to be negligent.
The Supreme Court has made an important remark, asking the Centre and the state governments not to act as mute spectators when developers let buyers down. The government must step in and ensure the project is completed in a time-bound manner. Therefore, the home buyers, who had to knock on the doors of the government, too have been provided with some relief.
Also read: Amrapali illegally diverted homebuyers’ money to Dhoni’s sports company: SC
Supreme Court tried giving a verdict in favour of Amrapali home buyers, but several problems persist
G. Chandrasekhar
President, Amrapali Centurian Park Flat Buyers Association
The Supreme Court has pronounced its judgement, which is in favour of the home buyers. Still, the home buyers are not clear as to how they are going to get their long awaited homes. If it happens it will relieve them from the agonies they are in today.
The Supreme Court has asked the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to complete all the pending projects. NBCC needs approximately Rs 8,000 crore to complete all the unfinished projects. The Supreme Court had earlier asked the debt recovery tribunal (DRT) to auction off certain immovable assets of the Amrapali Group. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Hence the question is, how will the required funds be generated by the NBCC?
The Supreme Court also asked the central and state governments to look into the issue and ensure projects that are stuck are completed and the home buyers are given their flats.
I welcome the move by the Supreme Court to ask the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate into the case in terms of money laundering by officials and directors of the Amrapali Group, as the culprits should be investigated and punished as per the provisions of law.
In a nutshell, it is a welcome order. But home buyers have to wait and see how it is going to take a shape.
Judgment sets precedent for giving relief to helpless home buyers held hostage by stuck projects
Anuj Puri
Chairman, ANAROCK Property Consultants
In a landmark judgment favouring aggrieved home buyers, the Supreme Court cancelled the registration of all companies of Amrapali Group under state RERA. This is indeed a remarkable judgment and will hopefully set a much-needed precedent for giving relief to helpless home buyers who are held hostage by stuck projects.
This remarkable move will have a far-reaching positive impact on the Indian housing market. Several home buyers will now get significant relief as they now have an assurance that their homes will be delivered. They will not have to bear the extra burden of the pending statutory dues. With the NBCC being given the charge to complete all the projects in question, buyers are finally seeing light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
Eliminating weak links in the value chain ultimately paves the way for financially sound and ethical developers to flourish. This, the latest of many recent developments, does not come a moment too soon for a real estate market where stuck/stalled projects have become rampant.
Also read: How Amrapali cheated 49,000 homebuyers, according to Supreme Court
Govt may have failed to do its job before, but it must execute Supreme Court verdict now
Aditya Parolia
Advocate Partner PSP Legal
It used to be the government’s duty to see that the rights of home buyers were protected, but failure on their part made the courts’ intervention necessary. The Supreme Court’s verdict does not re-encapsulate the entire issue, but it could be seen as a remedy offered in favour of home buyers.
It is for the first time that a verdict not only covers the rights of home buyers and compensates them, but also initiates procedures to probe the directors of Amrapali Group, specifically its managing director Anil Sharma, on money laundering charges. The government may have initially failed to do its job, but the responsibility to execute the Supreme Court’s verdict still rests with it.
Earlier, government authorities could not grant conveyance deeds to the home buyers because of existing dues. But thanks to this verdict, registered conveyance deed will be executed in favour of the home buyers now. Regarding the project being handed over to the NBCC, the government body does not undertake construction work itself, but subcontracts it to other developers. Therefore, it is important to see who is given the contract, and how and when the third party developer executes the project.
Developers take advantage of the delayed system of justice in India
Samir Jasuja
Founder and CEO, PropEquity
Complete justice was done by the Supreme Court in this verdict, as it pulled up all the agencies including banks and the Noida and Greater Noida authorities. It is an extremely welcome step. There needs to be active collaboration between buyers and developers.
While this judgment is a good step, it is important to note that in cases like these there should be timely justice. Unlike other cases that have grey areas, this case was in black and white. What the courts need is a universal law, wherein any developer who delays a project by more than three years should be asked to cough up the money and refund the buyers. Developers take advantage of the delayed system of justice and the cases drag on, sometimes even for 10 years, which allows developers to buy time. Buyers, in contrast, only get 8 per cent interest and that too, if they win the case.
The current judicial system gives an advantage to developers. The Supreme Court should form a committee comprising buyers and a development manager such as the NBCC to oversee such cases.
By Revathi Krishnan and Fiza Jha
It may look as if the court has brought the moon to the earth! Reality is that if Supreme Court can solve all the problems, it is better to have only supreme courts all over the country or convert all courts into Supreme Courts. They teach law, process, procedure, fairness, jurisdiction and the like principles, but when it comes to Supreme Court, they seem to forget everything. There is a wisdom in creating several authorities. As a lawyer, I bet nothing is going to happen by this order. The better idea would be let RERA do its job and ensure that babus taking huge salaries and rushvats do that job in a better manner, closer to reality. Appoint investigation agency with some deadline to deal with offence.
This judgement merely seeks to lay down the principles for protection g the unsuspecting homebuyers from the predatory and patently fraudulent, fly by night type, builders, the majority of whom actually front for very powerful and politically volatile and influential people. This may only be a beginning g and it will not do to merely hand over the job of the scavenger to a PSUwithout specifically suggesting the point by point means to recover the entire amount of the loot by the unscrupulously dangerous builders luke Amra pali which is just a representative figure. Personally, I would be inclined to suggest several other measures in this regard from my experience as a tax collector-cum-investigator of tax frauds. I hope the Hon’ble Cort goes further to constitute a committee to squarely deal with this malaise which actually is a menace. For the time being, I would most respectfully submit that their Lordships only mandate a very fundamental inquiry into the source of the fees paid by the subject culprits to their battery of lawyers representing them all through. This exercise, it is respectfully, submitted, will at least unearth the secret sources of funds available with the well planned fraud and the type of people complicit in the crimcrime that is consciously encouraged and even protected by the laws of the land.
The apex court has stepped out of the crease, done the right thing. Absent its somewhat unconventional order, thousands of middle class families would have been left stranded, caught in an interminable legal maze. When the exercise of the awesome power of the state is done in the utmost good faith, people don’t mind an excess of zeal. Similarly, to deal with the mountain of NPAs – I remain a little sceptical about the IBC – if the government and the central bank work in tandem, radiate the same trustworthiness that the apex court does, they could cover a lot of ground.