Unitech Ltd is building 74 housing projects all over the country, which seems like they are going to get evicted from.
The apex court on Friday rolled out the order of giving the reins of these project to different other builders. Over 20,000 homebuyers have been waiting for their houses to get ready, they also have deposited the capital.Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah called out that homebuyers have been waiting for over a decade still are waiting for the possession of their flat. This wait cannot be continued to an indefinite time. The homebuyers are getting crushed by the EMIs of the home loan as well as the rent of their temporary accommodation
''this state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely''
For the motion of Unitech, senior advocate A M Singhvi assured the court that the company will deliver the possession of flats in a phased manner within three years. He pleaded the bench not to evict Unitech from their projects. Supreme court is banishing Unitech along with its 46 sub dairies to protect the house buyers from further exploitation. The Centre stepped in and told the court that it has decided how the project can be overtaken. Attorney General K K Venugopal told the court that the referenced ministry is looking into the matter and will be coming up with a plan to solve the issue. National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited NBCC can take over and finish the construction. The call was opposed by Singhvi, saying that the momentum of the construction will suffer from the handing over to a new party. He also brings forth that NBCC failed with the construction of Amrapali and Jaypee. Adding to his argument he said that the new builder will be needing at least a bracket of six months to understand the constitution which will cause further delay to the possession.
“Your client has failed. If NBCC fails then we are here to see. We are clearly of the view that the task cannot be entrusted to you to complete the projects to safeguard the interest of homebuyers,”the bench said, rejecting Unitech’s pleas.
As the representative of homebuyers, advocate M L Lahoty said that the Centre should look upon private construction companies, recalling the SC decision of handling the construction to Larsen and Toubro in the Amrapali case. The court has asked for a compressive proposal in 10 days from attorney general after examining all the options. The bench also decided upon setting a bench which will be headed by former HC judge to look upon the construction work. As per a forensic auditor appointed by the SC, Unitech has diverted more than Rs 1,500 crore which by means was collected by the homebuyers for construction of their houses but is not spent there. To which Unitech defended and denied any diversion of construction fund saying it is all in the group and is being used for buying land. Unitech's managing director Sanjay Chandra and brother Ajay Chandra have been imprisoned since 2017 on the call of EOW Economic Offence Wing for not handling the possession of flats to the buyers.
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