NEW DELHI: Supreme Court has sought details of delayed housing projects in NCR where homebuyers, who took loans under subvention plan to fund their dream homes, are being harassed by financial institutions because of developers not completing the project and also for not paying EMI to banks as per the agreement.
Under the subvention scheme, banks disburse the sanctioned amount directly to the accounts of the builders, who were then to pay EMIs on the sanctioned loan amount, until possession of the flats are handed over to the homebuyers. As builders started defaulting in paying the EMIs to the banks as per the Tripartite Agreement, the banks initiated action against the buyers to recover the EMIs instead.
As hundreds of homebuyers approached the court against banks for taking coercive action against them for default of builders in paying EMIs, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan decided to take a comprehensive look at the problem to explore ways to resolve the issue. The bench sought all details regarding payment made by builders and buyers to the banks, status of the project and the proceedings going on against default builders in different forums including under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)
The bench directed petitioner homebuyers, builders and banks to furnish these information regarding different projects–(i) The status and details of payments made by builders to banks or payments by the home-buyers to banks/ builders, (ii) The date of offering possession where the project is stated to have been completed, (iii) The current status of completion of the project (iv) The status of recovery from the home-buyers, (v) The amenities advertised by the builders at the time of launching projects and the status re: completion thereof, (vi) The status as to whether the builder-cum developers has undergone CIRP (under IBC) or any other coercive or non-coercive recovery procedure, and the stage of such proceedings, (vii) Whether the home-buyers received any relief from the statutory authorities like Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA). If so, the details of such orders be also furnished.
The bench had earlier granted relief to the homebuyers and directed that no coercive action be taken against them by banks or builders regarding payment of EMI and no complaint should be entertained against them for cheque bounce cases. A large number of homebuyers had approached Delhi High Court which had in 2023 refused to grant them relief, saying that there were alternate remedies available to them and they thereafter knocked the doors of the apex court. One batch of the homebuyers, represented by advocate Anshul Gupta, submitted that they were victims of illegal disbursal of loan by the bank directly into the account of the builder in violation of RBI guidelines, which are statutory in nature. “This the classic case where one rich man (bank/financial institutions) gave money to another rich man (builder). The rich man who received the money (builder) ran away with it without fulfilling his obligations. The rich man who gave the money (bank/financial institutions), disbursed it in violation of the law of the land. The poor man (homebuyer) is now made a victim and is pushed into litigation by the bank when he has not received a single rupee. And is deprived of his dream home,” a petition, filed by advocate Gupta, said. They alleged the main violation was that the banks disbursed the amount directly to the builder without linking it to the stages of construction in gross violation of RBI circulars as well as National Housing Bank guidelines.
