SC summons Noida, Greater Noida CEOs over non-compliance in Amrapali Group’s case, ET RealEstate
NEW DELHI: Noting that Noida and Greater Noida Authorities were not cooperating in completing the construction of Amrapali Group’s housing projects, which are being carried out under its supervision, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed their CEOs to appear before it.
Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma also directed the authorities to file as response on unused and purchasable FAR (floor area ratio) in the projects. The court passed the order after attorney general R Venkataramani, who was appointed by the apex court as a receiver, told the court that he had been communicating with the authorities for the past one year without any progress.
The AG, who has been given the task of reviving the company and rescue thousands of homebuyers who invested their hard-earned money but was left in lurch due to siphoning of funds, expressed his desperation that there had been no progress due to non-cooperation of authori ties. He said, they were “killing the goose before it lays eggs” and not co-operating. “They have been adding to the problem instead of solving it. I have been corresponding with them for the last one year but there is no solution,” Venkataramani told the bench.
An application was filed seeking directions to the Noida and Greater Noida Authorities to sanction the building plans/ layout plans in relation to unused FAR of the projects. These projects were originally sanctioned with an FAR of 2.75 when the lease deed was executed, but was later revised to 3.5.
Taking note of AG’s submission, the bench said, “We are getting the impression that you are not co-operating and you are not putting the correct picture before the court.” It then directed the authorities to file a fresh response.
Sending the Amrapali chairman and other officials to jail for cheating thousands of homebuyers, the apex court had taken over the company in order to protect interest of homebuyers and appointed Venkataramani as receiver to manageits affairs. It has passed a slew of directions to generate funds to reviv e the company and complete pending construction works. The apex court gave the task to NBCC to construct 16 projects consisting of 46,575 units, of which nine projects are in Noida and the remaining in Greater Noida. As per NBCC, Rs 8,017 crore is required for completion of all the projects.
The court, in its 2019 verdict, held Amrapali group and its CMD Anil Kumar and other directors responsible for siphoning off homebuyers’ money for personal gains and to expand their business empire. The court had said the group set up several dummy companies using names of office boys and peons to divert money.
The court said the amount received by the group from homebuyers was more than that spent on construction and payment of the land and directed Enforcement Directorate to do a thorough probe against the group and its officials to track diversion of funds and to catch the beneficiaries.
