Consortium of PSU banks agrees to infuse funds for completion of stalled Amrapali projects

The Supreme Court was informed that a consortium of six public sector banks have agreed to infuse around Rs 1,000 crore in the stalled projects to ensure their speedy completion.

New Delhi: In a relief to thousands of Amrapali homebuyers, the Supreme Court on Saturday was informed that a consortium of six public sector banks have agreed to infuse around Rs 1,000 crore in the stalled projects to ensure their speedy completion.

On the occasion of Diwali, 150 flats completed by the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) in a stalled project of Amrapali were given to the homebuyers in a small ceremony organised with the help of court receiver.

A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Ajay Rastogi was informed court-appointed receiver senior advocate R Venkataramani that the consortium of six PSU banks, which include UCO bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, among others have agreed in-principle to infuse funds to the tune of around Rs 1,000 crore and paperwork is likely to be completed by the month end.

The bench asked Venkataramani to ensure that the process is expedited and money starts coming in the first week of December, so that stalled work can be started expeditiously.

The court receiver further said that valuation work of five personal villas of former Amrapali directors, which have been attached on court orders, is complete and five parties have shown interest in buying them at a cost that is more than the valuation price.

The bench directed that all these villas shall be auctioned by public sector undertaking MSTC Ltd, which has been involved in auctioning of Amrapali properties earlier as well.
Advocate ML Lahoty, appearing for homebuyers, said that the court should deal with their application seeking recovery of money from the defaulters as per the 2019 judgement of the court.

The bench said that it will try to hear the Amrapali matter on every Saturday and would dispose of these applications.

Meanwhile, the court also reserved its order on the application filed by NOIDA seeking recall of June 10, 2020 order by which the court has curtailed the interest charged by the authority from the year 2010 onwards from the builders, who have been allotted land by the authority.

On October 25, the top court was informed that 150 homebuyers of Amrapali in a project situated at Greater Noida will be given the possession letter in a ceremony planned for Diwali, which is on November 4.

Since the 2019 verdict of the top court, for the first time the 150 homebuyers were given possession letters for the flats in a project, which was stalled after Amrapali ran into legal and financial trouble. The court receiver had then informed it that around 300 flats are nearing completion out of which 150 flats have been completed by NBCC.

On September 3, the top court had warned that the flat buyers of Amrapali Group who are not clearing their dues as per the payment plan should not be in any kind of delusion as their units can be cancelled and will be considered as unsold inventory.

The top court had earlier said that there are two categories of homebuyers -- first category is of 9,538 homebuyers who have neither registered so far in the Customer Data maintained by the office of the receiver nor have made any payments subsequent to the judgment of the court in July, 2019.

It had noted, in its order, that there is a second category of 6,210 homebuyers, who have registered themselves in the Customer Data but have not made any payment since the judgment of this court in July, 2019.

The NBCC earlier said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it was making all efforts towards the successful completion of various projects of the Amrapali Group situated in Noida and Greater Noida.

It had said that at present, 10 projects in Noida and 12 projects in Greater Noida are under execution involving 45,957 units with sanctioned project cost of Rs 8,025.78 crore.

The apex court in its July 23, 2019, verdict had cracked the whip on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by homebuyers and ordered the cancellation of the registration of the Amrapali Group under real estate law RERA, and ousted it from prime properties in the NCR by nixing the land leases.

Former group directors of Amrapali Anil Kumar Sharma, Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar are behind bars on the top court's order.

The apex court had directed a probe by the Enforcement Directorate into alleged money laundering by realtors, providing relief to over 42,000 home buyers of Amrapali Group with the verdict. Also Read: JPC members oppose proposal to reduce penalty amount in data protection bill

The Supreme Court, which is trying to bring in funds for the stalled projects, had then directed the state-run NBCC to complete the stalled projects of the Amrapali Group. Also Read: SBI customers can withdraw cash from ATM without debit card, here’s how