New Delhi: The realtors of Noida and Greater Noida assured the Supreme Court on Saturday Nov 13 that the benefits of low interest, which was fixed by the apex court, on delay in payment to Noida authorities will trickle down to the homebuyers.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the builders, submitted before a bench comprising justices U.U. Lalit and Ajay Rastogi that Noida and Greater Noida authorities have accepted the verdict.
The real estate companies further said that Noida and Greater Noida authorities have moved the top court after lapse of more than a year, and termed it as an abuse of the process of law.
The counsel contended that an affidavit was also filed giving undertaking to comply with the directions in the court order. They argued that it is not correct for the authorities to seek the recall of the order, and urged the bench not to recall last year’s order. Sibal argued that authorities could have sought review of the order immediately, rather than waiting for the judge, who passed the order, to retire.
The authorities had argued that the top court’s order would lead to unreasonable benefit to the builders, which would be in thousands of crores, and it will come at the cost of public authorities.
Countering this argument, both Sibal and Singhvi assured the court that the benefits would be passed on to the flat purchasers.
They termed the authorities turning bankrupt due to the court order as baseless and added that the authorities made huge profits by allocating lands to companies at a rate 10 times higher than at which they were bought from the farmers.
The top court, during the hearing, sought to know why relief was granted only to the builders of Noida and Greater Noida, adding that this would have to be examined.
In July last year, the top court had directed that interest on late payment by companies be linked to the SBI’s marginal cost of lending rate (MCLR), beginning January 2010. The apex court fixed the rate of interest at around 8 per cent against the penal interest demanded by the Noida authority, which was over 28 per cent.
The order had come on a plea of Ace Group of Companies, which claimed that various projects were stalled due to excessive lease rent, penalty and interest charged by the authorities. Recently, the authorities had urged the top court to recall its order, saying that they could lose around Rs 7,500 crore.
Meanwhile, in a big relief to thousands of Amrapali homebuyers, the court-appointed receiver told the top court that six banks — State Bank of India, Bank of India, Punjab and Sindh Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank — have agreed to fund the unfinished housing projects.
Advocate Kumar Mihir, representing the homebuyers, said: “The issue of bank funding has been pending for a long time now. I hope the banks which have given in-principal approval for the funding of Amrapali projects may also firm up their proposal along with the other banks form the consortium soon, so that the funds can be released at the earliest for the construction of these projects.”
