Submit in 30 days proposal to complete Amrapali projects: SC to NBCC

Satya Prakash

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 2

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) to submit a plan in 30 days on how to complete the projects of Amrapali Group which has failed to deliver flats to thousands of homebuyers despite having taken money from them.

A Bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice UU Lalit asked NBCC to prepare and submit a "concrete proposal" with timeframe and cost involved by September 4 after the NBCC chairman told it that the public sector company was ready to take over the projects of the embattled realtor.

The Bench made it clear that NBCC would be compensated for the entire exercise that would benefit thousands of homebuyers who have been left in lurch by the builder, accused of diverting money collected from innocent flat buyers.

The top court also ordered Amrapali group statutory and internal auditors to audit the accounts of all the companies of the Amrapali Group to find out how Rs 2,765 crore was diverted by its directors. It directed the company to hand over all the relevant documents to the two auditors who told the Bench that no documents had been shared with them by Amrapali Group since 2015.

On the request of the company, the Bench recalled its earlier order directing the group to deposit Rs 250 crore. However, the judges termed its conduct as "wholly unfair" and "absolutely improper".

On Wednesday, it had ordered freezing of accounts of Amrapali Group companies and their directors for playing "dirty games" with the court and "defrauding" homebuyers. It had also sought details of all the bank accounts of 40 companies of the group and their directors.

However, the company submitted the bank details of only 38 of them and nothing about their directors' accounts. While directing the court's Registry to send the details to the banks concerned to freeze their accounts, it asked the company to furnish the remaining bank details by Wednesday.

The Bench warned Union Housing and Urban Development Secretary DS Mishra of contempt for having gone ahead with meeting to solve the problems faced by Amrapali homebuyers even as the matter was pending before the court.

Mishra said a high-level committee was formed by the Uttar Pradesh government under the chairmanship of the secretary of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to redress the issues of home-buyers and affected parties of incomplete or stalled housing projects at Noida, Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway.

"In simple words you have committed gross contempt of court," the Bench said but let him off after he tendered an apology. The Bench, however, said the committee set up under him by the UP government can go ahead with its efforts to solve the problems of homebuyers but it must seek courts' permission wherever the matter is pending in courts.

On Wednesday, the Bench had directed the Amrapali group, which was yet to hand over possession of flats to around 42,000 hassled home buyers, to place before it the details of all of its bank accounts from 2008 till today and ordered freezing of bank accounts of all the directors of its 40 firms, besides attaching their personal properties.

The bench had yesterday taken umbrage as to how the NBCC had issued advertisements inviting co-developers for doing the work related to the Amrapali group without taking its approval.

The group had said it was in talks with the Centre for the construction of its pending, unsold and future projects by the NBCC and had already submitted a proposal in this regard.

It had earlier told the court in an affidavit that it was not in a position to complete the projects and hand over the possession of flats to over 42,000 home buyers in a time-bound manner.