A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh found a prima facie nexus between renowned banks and builders in Noida, Gurugram, Yamuna Expressway, Greater Noida, Mohali, Mumbai, Kolkata and Allahabad
The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petition filed by over 1,200 homebuyers, who booked flats under subvention plans in various housing projects in NCR. Representational pic
Observing an "unholy nexus" between the banks and developers to dupe homebuyers, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register seven preliminary inquiries against builders in the National Capital Region (NCR), reported news agency PTI.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh found a prima facie nexus between renowned banks and builders in Noida, Gurugram, Yamuna Expressway, Greater Noida, Mohali, Mumbai, Kolkata and Allahabad.
The bench took into account an affidavit filed by CBI and directed the Director Generals of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Haryana to give a list of Deputy Superintendents of police (DSP), inspectors, and constables to the agency to constitute a special investigation team (SIT), reported PTI.
The top court further directed the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs)/administrators of Greater Noida Authority, Noida Authority, secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Reserve Bank of India to notify one nodal officer from among their senior-most officers within a week to extend necessary assistance to SIT.
The bench said it will be monitoring the status of the investigations on a monthly basis, reported PTI.
The amicus curiae in the matter, Advocate Rajiv Jain, called one of the developers the "main culprit" in defrauding homebuyers, whereas a bank advanced more than Rs 2,700 crore to builders through subvention schemes.
The court was informed that the developer had 21 projects in six cities with agreement with 19 banks with 800 aggrieved homebuyers.
The report of the amicus revealed the developer alone had secured a loan amount of Rs 5,157.86 crore since 1998.
The underlying nexus between the developer and the banks was, therefore, required a scrutiny on priority, it added.
Under the subvention scheme, banks disburse the sanctioned amount directly to the accounts of builders, who are then required to pay Equated Monthly Instalment (EMIs) on the sanctioned loan amount until flats are handed over to homebuyers. After builders started defaulting on EMIs to banks – as per the tripartite agreement – the banks sought EMIs from the homebuyers.
The Supreme Court previously said thousands of homebuyers were affected by the subvention scheme, where banks paid 60 to 70 per cent of the home loan amount to the builders without projects being completed within the stipulated time.
The court had then ordered the CBI to submit a roadmap on how it planned to unravel the "builder-banks nexus" which duped thousands of homebuyers in NCR and proposed to go into the root of the matter.
The bench was hearing a batch of petition filed by over 1,200 homebuyers, who booked flats under subvention plans in various housing projects in NCR region especially Noida, Greater Noida and Gurugram, alleging that they were being forced by banks to pay EMIs despite no possession of flats.
(With PTI inputs)
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