SC stays NCLAT order asking NBCC to complete Supertech housing projects

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The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order appointing state-owned NBCC as the project management consultant to complete debt-ridden realty firm Supertech Ltd's 16 housing projects at nearly Rs 9,500 crore cost.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan heard two appeals against the NCLAT order and expressed concern for home buyers.

The bench issued notices to the parties on the appeals and stayed the NCLAT order that appointed NBCC to take over the Supertech projects.

The bench said it would examine whether the NCLAT followed the procedure under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code while appointing the NBCC as a project management consultant to complete the housing projects.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on December 12, 2024 asked the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), a PSU under the union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, to complete 16 housing projects, comprising 49,748 homes in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Karnataka.

Around 27,000 home buyers await receiving homes in these projects.

The NCLAT judgement came after the October 1, 2014 order of the top court that allowed the insolvency appellate tribunal to examine and decide a proposal of the NBCC seeking to complete stalled housing projects.

The CJI asked the parties concerned to file their their responses in writing with regard to plans about the completion of stalled housing projects sans the NBCC.

The bench asked the resolution professional to perform its functions as per law in the meantime and posted the hearing in the April 1 week.

We respect the decision of Supreme Court to stay the NCLAT order which allowed NBCC to take over Supertech's projects arbitrarily without respecting the interests of other stakeholders like land authorities and lenders. We welcome the Supreme Court's instructions of inviting other companies to propose a solution which takes care of all stakeholders along with homebuyers. As promoters, we want a solution for all stakeholders including homebuyers, bankers and land authorities, said R K Arora, the chairman of Supertech group, in a statement.

The NCLAT had directed the NBCC to "start the process of award of work before March 31, 2025" and award of contract within a month thereafter and the construction was ordered to start from May 1, 2025 for the 16 projects.

It also ordered the "constitution of an apex court committee and project-wise court committee" for each project.

In each project-wise court committee, the NBCC was asked by NCLAT to nominate one member.

The NBCC seeks to complete the projects, launched in the National Capital Region, Dehradun and Bengaluru but the completion of the residential units took a hit owing to the financial crisis faced by the realty major, leading to insolvency proceedings beginning 2021.

The NBCC, before the NCLAT, submitted terms of reference for undertaking the pending projects of Supertech Ltd.

The public sector enterprise proposed to complete the 16 projects in three phases.

Under Phase 1, it proposed to complete Eco-Village-2 (Greater Noida), Romano (Noida), Capetown (Noida), Czar suites (Greater Noida), Eco-village-3 (Greater Noida), Sports Village (Greater Noida) and Eco-citi (Noida).

Under Phase-2, the NBCC as per its application before NCLAT proposed to undertake Northeye (Noida), Upcountry (Yamuna Expressway), Eco-village-1 (Greater Noida), Meerut Sports City (Meerut) and Green Village (Meerut).

For Phase 3, the NBCC proposed to undertake Hilltown (Gurugram), Aravile (Gurugram), Rivercrest (Rudrapur), Doon Square (Dehradun) and Micasa (Bengaluru).

The NCLAT had asked the 27,000 homebuyers and other stakeholders to submit objections, if any, to NBCC's proposal to complete the stalled projects.

On May 11, 2023, the top court allowed a "project-wise resolution" process for Supertech Ltd and allowed construction of all other projects by the developer under the supervision of an interim resolution professional (IRP).

The Union Bank of India initiated insolvency proceedings against the realty firm under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code on March 20, 2021, claiming over Rs 431 core as on January 31, 2021, along with accrued interest.