Bank consortium gives final approval of Rs 1,500 crore for Amrapali projects: SC

NEW DELHI: In a boost to the efforts of construction of stalled projects of Amrapali, the Supreme Court was on Monday told that a consortium of seven banks have granted final approval to infuse Rs 1500 crore out of which Rs 150 has been directly paid to National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC).

A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Bela M Trivedi was told by court receiver R Venkataramani that the rest of the amount could not be released as banks said that for the purposes of disbursal of funds they would require equitable mortgage by deposit of title deeds as a pre-condition.

The top court was told that one of the reasons pertains to some of the observations made by this court in its judgement dated July 23, 2019, in one of the paragraphs of the judgement and some clarification was sought.

Venkataramani in his note pointed out that the top court had in its judgement said that all leases in favour of Amrapali Group of companies stand cancelled which in effect would mean that there would be no title document that could be deposited in the banks.

The court receiver and counsel appearing for the consortium of banks said that the situation could be salvaged if the name of the Amrapali Group of companies could be substituted by the court receiver.

The bench said that it was precisely for which reasons the expression used in the judgement is “vest in court receiver” or “right of the lessee shall rest in court receiver”.

The bench noted the agreement of advocate Ravindra Kumar, appearing for NOIDA and Greater Noida authority, and directed the authorities to withdraw the lease deeds of Amrapali Projects with respect to NOIDA and Greater NOIDA and make available these deeds to the court receiver, so that equitable mortgage could be created in favour of the consortium.

“Let the needful be done within seven days from today”, the bench said.

It also dealt with one other objection of the banks which pertained to statutory approvals which according to the banks are required for the disbursal of further funds.

“The statutory approvals could be those which are required at the initial stage of inception before the stage of construction or those which are required before issuance of final completion certificate is accorded”, the bench said.

It said that since the projects are still in the stage of construction…, “Thus all the statutory approvals which are required before the construction can be taken or started shall be obtained as early as possible and the same may be provided to the receiver for further action in this regard”.

The top court also asked the court receiver that where construction is completed he shall execute appropriate documents in favour of the association of buyers.

“You must also get out of the scenario. The receiver is not supposed to be there for eternity. Rest is for the association of owners to do”, the bench said.

Venkataramani said he has some plans for the issue and would be placed before the court after a couple of weeks.

The bench said that home buyers also have some apprehensions with regard to the structural safety of buildings now constructed by the NBCC and it needs to be clarified that when such structural safety exercises were undertaken an NBCC and court receiver had to address the court on the issue.

On March 28, the top court had directed the Bank of Baroda-led consortium of seven banks to effectuate disbursal of Rs 1,500 crore for the construction of stalled real estate projects of Amrapali Group.

It had noted that six banks — Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Punjab and Sindh Bank, and UCO Bank — have granted in-principle approval for disbursal of funds, while Indian Bank was about to give the final approval.

The National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) has been entrusted by the top court with completing stalled projects of Amrapali Group.

On March 21, the top court had said its number one priority is to ensure that every Amrapali home buyer gets a flat.

The top court was told by the court receiver, that initially they had issued a list of around 8,000 flats which were not claimed by any buyer or which were booked under bogus names or were undervalued.

On February 21, the NBCC had assured the top court that the construction of stalled projects of Amrapali Group will be of good quality and independent experts will assess the safety and quality standards.

The NBCC had earlier told the top court that at present, 10 projects in Noida and 12 projects in Greater Noida are under execution involving 45,957 units with a 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 home buyers and ordered the cancellation of the registration of 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 in prison on the top court’s order.

The 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.

The top 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 Amrapali Group.