NEW DELHI: With the
complex litigation involving thousands of
refund seeking
homebuyers and
Jaypee group companies hurtling towards finality in the
Supreme Court,
Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) on Monday promised to give
possession of
500 flats every month and pay the principal amount of all those who wanted refund.
However, both these offers came with a caveat from JAL counsel Fali S Nariman that the company must be allowed to generate funds by monetising its assets — Rs 2,700 crore from Yes Bank by mortgaging toll collection on Yamuna Expressway for 10 years and Rs 600 crore by disposing of its cement plant in Rewa in Madhya Pradesh.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, who in September last year had promised the SC would ensure homebuyers seeking refund were paid back only to admit a few days ago that it never thought the task was so mammoth, asked JAL counsel Anupam Lal Das to circulate the proposal among homebuyers and others. It decided to hold day-to-day hearing to wind up the case.
JAL, which has so far deposited Rs 750 crore, quantified the principal amount due to all refund seeking homebuyers at Rs 1,372 crore. It promised to deposit seven post-dated cheques amounting to Rs 600 crore dated between July 16 and August 27, thus taking the risk of facing criminal consequences if the cheques bounced.
