Coming to the rescue of thousands of home buyers and facilitating disbursal of their stalled loans for flats constructed by real estate firm Unitech Ltd, the Supreme Court has granted exemption from registration under RERA for different housing projects located in seven states.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Notiswar Singh said the order in the interest of justice will help in dispensing with the procedural requirements for releasing and advancing of loans to home buyers of different Unitech projects.
Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, every project measuring more than 500 sq m or more than eight apartments are required to be registered with the RERA.
The top court also issued notices to banks and financial institutions, which has declared the loan accounts of home buyers as Non-Performing Assets (NPA) as the project’s completion were delayed, due to financial problems faced during the erstwhile management of Unitech Group and for non-compliance under RERA Act.
It issued the notices on a plea of Unitech Ltd, which is currently being run by a government appointed board of directors, seeking directions for disbursal of stalled loan amounts of the home buyers.
It has contended that the banks and financial institutions, which have earlier sanctioned loans to the home buyers for purchasing units in Unitech Projects have stopped payments of balanced dues on account of projects not moving forward.
It also directed the chairperson of Uttar Pradesh State Pollution Control Board to grant environmental clearances to the projects of Unitech being constructed at Noida.
The top court asked the Chief Executive Officer of NOIDA to grant approval for the three projects and if any issues remain unresolved, then it should be raised before the committee headed by former apex court judge Justice AM Sapre on January 21.
Unitech Ltd. has further contended that now that the projects have been revived, directions be issued to the financial institutions for disbursal of loans of home buyers. It said that the home buyers have till now made around 70 per cent of their payments for their units but banks thereafter stalled the disbursal of loan amount.
