MillenniumPost
Delhi

Clear outstanding payments by Jan 31 for completion of stalled projects: SC to Amrapali homebuyers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set the ball rolling for thousands of Amrapali home buyers to finally get their respective homes completed. The top court on Monday directed the home buyers to pay all outstanding amounts by January 31 either in installments or in lump-sum for speedy completion of all the stalled projects of the tainted builder. The Apex court also asked 28 banks, who have entered into agreements directly with home buyers or through the Amrapali Group for financing homes, to disburse the pending amount within one month.

It asked Additional Solicitor General Vikramjeet Banerjee to seek instruction on whether a certain amount of money from the Rs 25,000 crore fund, announced on November 6 by the Centre for completing stalled real estate projects in the country, can be used as a loan for pending Amrapali projects and what the modalities of such a facilitation would be.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit said that funds need to be channelised to complete the pending projects of Amrapali Group to provide respite to the hassled home buyers. "So far around Rs 105 crore out of around Rs 3000 crore outstanding amount have been deposited by the home buyers," the bench said, adding, "We direct the home buyers to deposit the outstanding amount by January 31, 2020, either in installments or at one go". While the move brought a sigh of relief for many homebuyers, who just want the construction of their properties to be started as soon as possible and finished in due time; some have expressed hope that the Supreme Court issue stern directions to banks to disburse remaining loan amounts of homebuyers.

Noida Extension Flat Owners's Association (Nefowa) co-founder, Indrish Gupta said that a lot of flat owners have had trouble getting loan amounts disbursed from the banks. "I hope that the Supreme Court issues stern directions to them with respect to releasing our remaining loan amounts at the next hearing on December 13."

Gupta added that the recent spate of Supreme Court orders have brought more clarity to the flat owners' conundrum and hopes that this continues and pending work on their properties be commenced as soon as possible.

During the hearing, Joint Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED) Rajeshwar Singh informed the court that the agency has prima facie found evidence of the violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) by multinational firm JP Morgan and they have recorded the statements of the country head of the company with regard to dealings with the now-defunct Amrapali Group.

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