Don`t have money to refund to home buyers: Unitech to Supreme Court

New Delhi: Beleaguered real estate firm Unitech Ltd today expressed its inability before the Supreme Court to refund money to the home buyers over its two delayed housing projects in Noida and Gurgaon.

"We don't have money. If we had money, we would have constructed the flats and buildings and given to them," senior advocated A M Singhvi, the counsel for Unitech Ltd, told a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit said.

The bench indicated to Singhvi that the firm will have to pay the money back to investors and asked the flat buyers to furnish details of those interested in seeking refund and how much amount from the builder.

The counsel for some flat buyers of Unitech's Burgundy project in Noida and Vistas in Gurgaon told the bench that they don't want their money back but they want their house.

The bench asked the flat buyers to furnish their details by August 17.

Another builder, Parsvnath Developers Limited, conveyed to the bench that it has prepared a schedule for refunding the money to 70 of its home buyers of a Greater Noida project.

More than two dozen home buyers of Unitech's housing projects in Noida and Gurgaon have approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) after the builder failed to give them possession of the flats as per the scheduled.

The consumer forum has asked the real estate firm to refund the money to home buyers with interest.

The apex court had last month asked the company to deposit an interim penalty of Rs 5 crore with the court registry after the firm challenged an order of the consumer forum which had asked the developer to pay Rs 5 crore penalty to three buyers of its Burgundy project.

The court had said that the penalty deposited with the court will be awarded to the buyers or returned to Unitech, depending on the outcome of the case.