SC asks Amrapali to fix all problems by May 7

Realtor asked to repair escalators, lifts, fire safety equipment in its buildings

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed real estate firm Amrapali Group to repair the escalators, lifts and fire safety equipment in all residential buildings built by it in five days or face the consequences.

The top court’s remarks came after some homebuyers claimed that the escalators, lifts and fire safety equipment were not in working conditions or have not yet been installed by the realtor.

A Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U.U. Lalit said the realty firm should deploy adequate experts or engineers to ramp up the facilities for the homebuyers by May 7.

“The firm should fix the problems and install the fire safety equipment by next Monday or the promoters from the company may face serious consequences. They will not be spared,” the Bench said.

Fire incident

The court was informed by some homebuyers that around three weeks back, a fire incident had taken place in a residential apartment built by the firm.

It asked the homebuyers to reply to the affidavit filed by Amrapali and co-developer Galaxy Group which is willing to take its three projects for completion and posted the matter for further hearing on May 8.

SC sought assurance

On April 25, the apex court had said it would like to be assured of the financial standing and credentials of a company which is willing to take over some of the projects of Amrapali Group, observing that the homebuyers “cannot be just thrown to a frying pan”.

The court had asked the Noida-based Galaxy Group, which is willing to complete the three projects of Amrapali, to furnish its financial standing, its track record and an undertaking for timely completion of the projects.

The court was informed that the Galaxy Group have proposed to take projects Sapphire-I, Sapphire-II and Amrapali Leisure Park in Greater Noida.

In a bid to ascertain whether there was any “siphoning” of funds, the top court had earlier told the group to provide details of the money it had collected from the home buyers and asked how much it had invested in its housing projects.

The Amrapali Group had then provided the details of its ongoing housing projects, stages of work and the likely time to complete the construction.