Supreme Court says may direct NBCC to complete Amrapali's pending projects

Supreme Court to continue hearing the matter on May 10; asks NBCC, Greater Noida authority to assess if they can take over

Expressing displeasure over Amrapali group's failure to hand over flats to homebuyers, the Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that it may direct the Greater Noida Authority to take services of NBCC (India) Limited, or any other builder of repute, to complete the pending projects of the beleaguered real estate company.

“Amrapali has failed to fulfill obligation to Noida, or the homebuyers. People are residing in potentially hazardous buildings. Noida should have taken the land back from you. You go out. We will take care of the home buyers,” a two-judge bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice U U Lalit observed.

The court will continue hearing the matter on May 10, by when Greater Noida authority, as well as, NBCC will return with their reply on whether they would be able to take over the pending projects.

During the last hearing, the top court had said that Amrapali committed a “first-degree crime” by cheating thousands of homebuyers of their dream homes. The court had also pulled up banks and said that the financial institutions had also failed in their duty by not keeping an eye on the company’s illegal activities. The banks, the courts had said, had given loans to the company without checking if the money was used for the purpose for which it was obtained.

“Rs 3,500 crore have gone away. Due to your inaction, cheating has taken place. The banks' inaction has contributed to it. Had you taken action timely, this would not have happened,” the two-judge bench had observed.

The observation by the top court came after the auditors submitted a report that money was diverted by the Amrapali top brass and spent mostly on houses, luxury cars and weddings and also invested in shares and mutual funds. The two-judge bench is hearing a batch of petitions filed by homebuyers who are seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in projects of the Amrapali group.