Amrapali: RERA Registration Cancelled By The Supreme Court Of India

Good news for home buyers as Supreme Court cancels Amrapali’s RERA Registration, handover NBCC to complete it’s pending projects.

• On 23rd July, the Supreme Court has given its judgement on Amrapali group as it cancelled it’s registration under RERA( Real Estate Regulation Act, 2016). Further, it ordered NBCC (National Buildings Construction Corporation) to complete all Amrapali’s pending projects & save the money of thousands of home buyers who trusted on Amrapali’s dream house plan and were frauded by it.
• The Apex court division bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and Justice U.U Lalit decided to appoint a court receiver who is a Senior Advocate R.Venkataramni. His duties, as a court receiver would be that he would have the full rights and authority on Amrapali property and responsible to recover it’s outstanding amounts. Even, he is entitled to enter into tri-party agreement for recovering the outstanding amounts and give the legal possession to all the Amrapali’s home buyers.
• According to RERA Act 2016, the builder is bound by the obligation as to hand over the buyers project on time but Amrapali group failed to deliver the projects on time or comply with the obligations of RERA Act and also it diverted the allocated funds in creating various fake and fraud companies, bogus bills and in paying excess commission and selling the projects at undervalued price etc. Overall, it misused the money for it’s personal purposes.
• The revealed story of misusing the allocated funds were disclosed in the reports submitted by the two officials i.e. by court appointed forensic auditors Pawan Aggarwal and Ravinder Bhatia.
•  Where, various deeds were granted to Amrapali group by Noida and Greater Noida Authorities to give worth to the Amrapali home buyers but in Supreme Court judgement, the court cancelled all the granted deeds and said that the authorities shall have no right to sell and deliver the projects to the homebuyers for obtaining the pending amounts.
• The Apex Court Division Bench found that the homebuyers valuable money was diverted in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules and regulations.
• The Top-Court said that the homebuyers money have been diverted by the reason of non working officials of the Noida and Greater Noida Authorities. Further, it asked the above authorities to submit the completion certificate and legal conveyance deed within 1 month of completion to the flat buyers who are already residing in various projects of Amrapali’s group even if the outstanding amount is still pending.
• Further, in order to recover the pending amount, the supreme Court ordered to attach all the personal properties of Amrapali’s group chairman Anil Sharma, and two director Shiv Priya and Ajay Kumar.
• Earlier, various complaints had been filed by the home buyers against the Amrapali group wherein they stated that they have been cheated by Amrapali Group and finally on 28th February, the Apex court ordered the Delhi police to take the custody of Amrapali’s chairman and two directors.
•  Even the bench ordered the Union Ministry, the State Government and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development that the similar case like Amrapali group should not happen in future where the projects would not be under the guidelines laid by RERA Act, 2016 and keep the concern of home buyers and protect their rights and interests from the fraud of developers and malpractices adopted by them.
•  The legal counsel of Amrapali’s home buyers, advocate M.L Lahoti said,” This judgement is not limited to Amrapali but all the fraudulent builders who are taking money by similar tactics. We welcome this great action from the Supreme Court, which has directed the Centre and State Government to take actions against similar fraudulent projects.
• The top Court has planned the verdict on 10th May even after Noida and Greater Noida Authorities said that they do not have adequate resources and expertise to start and deliver the projects of Amrapali group. Then after, the Supreme Court considered and said that it may allow ownership rights of all the 15 prime residential properties of Amrapali group to Noida and Greater Noida Authorities as it did not handover the projects of 42000 home buyers.
•  The Apex Court Division Bench had then gave his Judgement on the issue as to who will handle all the management control now and to which builder the authorities should hand over the stalled projects for completion. Also the court questioned Noida Authority to give explanations on what precautions had taken against Amrapali group which was a “Chronic defaulter” in paying outstanding amount. Then Noida Authority replied that under their supervision they have seven projects of Amrapali and even they have due amount of 2000 crore while they received only 505 crore only.
•  Finally, the Supreme Court ordered Delhi police to arrest the chairman and two directors of Amrapali group and snatched all it’s personal property and threw it out from the Amrapali’s property rights and cancel its RERA’s Registration. Hence, it directed NBCC to take all it’s pending projects.
• Even, Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Property Consultants appreciated the Court’s verdict and stated that,” This is indeed a remarkable judgement and will hopefully set a badly needed precedent for righting the wrong imposed on helpless homebuyers held hostage by stuck projects.” This remarkable move will have a far reaching positive impact on the Indian housing market.

The starting of Amrapali’s Fraud to home buyers 

• The fraud of Amrapali group started in 2013 in raids where it was revealed that Amrapali had done nothing for completing projects from the past 6 years 2009-2015. Where in 2015, 900 families residing in a Amrapali housing society complained to the authorities that they were not getting adequate necessary facilities of water and electricity in their allotted flats where they were promised by the Amrapali to get accommodated with the basic and necessary facilities.
•  Even in 2016, Amrapali group appointed Cricket MS Dhoni as Amrapali’s brand ambassador to promote their flats but it did not last long. People started accusing him on social media for the non completion of Amrapali’s housing projects and he quit the brand ambassadorship of Amrapali group after that accusment. After 2 years, he sued Amrapali group for rupees 150 crore.
•  In 2017, home buyers of Amrapali Dream Valley Project shifted the top Court seeking relief.
•  The top Court found the non completion of obligations in the financial statements submitted by the forensic auditors where the previous report presented the irregularities in financial statements worth rupees 3000 crore of home buyers money.
•  In lieu of the above, the Apex Court has taken the final call on Amrapali project & has finally cancelled it Rera registration. Further, NBCC has been directed to complete the pending projects which will ultimately benefit the thousands of home buyers who have been waiting for their respective flats since almost a decade.