Noida: Five years & over 100 hearings but many Jaypee buyers no closer to flats

NEW DELHI: In January 2010, Puja Mehrish booked an apartment in Jaypee Infratech Ltd’s (JIL) Klassic Heights for which she took a loan. She was assured of possession in June 2013 but is still living in a rented place, while also paying EMIs.

There are others like Col SK Gupta, who had booked an apartment in Kasa Isles around the same time and has since retired. “If I had put even Rs 10 lakh in a good mutual fund scheme, it would have been Rs 1 crore by now,” he says.

Pramod Kumar, a Dubai resident, has repaid the loan, but the flat he booked isn’t in sight. Mehrish, Gupta and Kumar are among nearly 20,000 homebuyers who have been awaiting the outcome of multiple rounds of litigation in various courts over the last five years as one of the most high-profile insolvency cases drags on.

On June 23 last year, after yet another round of the insolvency resolution process for JIL that was meant to end in a maximum 270 days, applicant Suraksha’s offer was finally recommended to the National Company Law Tribunal after it won the committee of creditors’ vote, beating the proposal of state-run NBCC. However, despite the case being taken up by the Supreme Court, a resolution is nowhere in sight although the insolvency court has been hearing the case regularly and over 60 hearings have taken place.

“If you include the multiple rounds in NCLT, the appellate tribunal and the Supreme Court, there have been over 150 hearings and a final decision is still some months away,” says Aman Behl, another homebuyer.

Homebuyers accuse Jaypee of trying to stall the process to claim their crown jewel, a charge the company denies. Besides, government agencies too seem to be taking positions, which is not helping homebuyers.
Noida: Five years & over 100 hearings but many Jaypee buyers no closer to flatsMehrish, a regular at the hearings, estimates she has paid Rs 35,000-40,000 as legal fees. “I am tired of paying legal fees,” says another homebuyer. Several others gave up, with only four associations active now, against nine earlier.

Despite toll revenue from the Noida-Agra Expressway flowing to JIL, delivery hasn’t kept pace. So far, against bookings of over 30,000 units, comprising apartments, plots and shops primarily at Wish Town, around 13,000 offers for possession have been issued, with 8,500 given in the last five years when the project was under insolvency. The plan is to hand over 3,000 units by March and another 2,500 in a year. But that will still be at least a year behind the schedule given by interim resolution professional Anuj Jain.

It will also leave around 12,000 units, where a lot of work remains, for Suraksha. Suraksha has proposed to hand over possession within 42 months of the project being handed over. Given that the NCLT’s verdict can be challenged in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal and the Supreme Court, homebuyers are bracing for several rounds of battle.