“Want Lassi And Malai Too”: Supreme Court Slams Amrapali Buyers Over Dues
Homebuyers who want their flats completed in stalled projects of the troubled Amrapali Group projects in Noida and Greater Noida must pay their dues, or else their allotment could be cancelled, the Supreme Court said today.
The court’s observation came as a warning to homebuyers who had bought the flats several years ago, but have not been paying deposits for completion of the projects, after the government construction firm NBCC took over the projects from Amrapali Group, which could not deliver them despite taking huge sums from the homebuyers.
“They (homebuyers) want lassi also and malai also,” Justice UU Lalit said today. “Homebuyers want the flats, but don’t want to pay money. They just want NBCC to construct the flats and give to them,” Justice Lalit said, and ordered the homebuyers to ensure they deposit their dues according to the payment plan that they agreed at the time of purchase.
The Supreme Court warned not depositing the dues could lead to cancellation of flat allotment, after observing that several homebuyers have not been paying.
Justice Lalit’s observations came on a petition by homebuyers, represented by lawyer ML Lahoty, who said they bought the flats in the Amrapali projects several years ago and delivery has taken so long that they don’t have much money left on them to pay.
The Supreme Court was then told by the Amrapali court receiver R Venkataramani – a lawyer appointed by the court to coordinate with the authorities – that a consortium of six banks has been formed and it will be able to start lending to these homebuyers after a month from now. The next hearing in the case is on September 13.
In the last hearing, the Supreme Court had told the over 9,500 homebuyers to pay up in 15 days or their allotment could be cancelled.
In July 2019, the Supreme Court had cancelled the registration of Amrapali Group and removed all the land leases of the group in the National Capital Region (NCR) for breach of homebuyers’ trust.
NBCC was later tasked to finish and deliver 38,159 flats by 2023.