Thousands of Amrapali flat owners, who were asked to shell out more money towards maintenance and development of buildings got a big relief from the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The court termed this demand as “open cheating” and ordered the company to make its own arrangements towards maintenance.
A ‘bankrupt’ Amrapali has failed to repay loans to the tune of Rs 2,200 crore to the loanee banks and is currently facing insolvency proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal. The Tribunal had constituted an Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) to administer the company as per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
The IRP told the apex court that it had no option but to raise money from flat purchasers as funds were needed to install fire and electrical safety equipment in the 21 towers of the Amrapali Silicon City project housing over 1,000 families.
The Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy said, “You (IRP) want to cheat them. This is open cheating. You can’t raise the demand for money as all of the flat buyers have already given their hard-earned money to the promoters.”
The court directed Amrapali group to provide fire and electrical safety equipment in all the residential towers within four weeks.
Aggrieved homebuyers had rushed to the court claiming they had deposited nearly Rs 2,000 crore towards the residential projects. There were instances where despite the full amount being paid, possession was not given. The Bench asked IRP counsel senior advocate Gourab Banerjee whether it was acting in collusion with the company.
Banerjee said IRP is currently faced with the prospect of raising Rs 21 crore for installing the fire safety equipments. Incidentally, a fire had recently broken out at one of the towers. At present out of the 43 towers in the Silicon City project, only 21 towers are under occupation. Despite collecting a sum of Rs 2,000 crore from consumers, the IRP informed that the net balance lying in the company’s bank account is only Rs 1.5 crore.