Our objective is to give houses to 22,000 Unitech homebuyers: SC

The Supreme Court made it clear on Wednesday that its objective was to ensure that 22,000 homebuyers of the ailing Unitech Ltd got their dream homes and asked the new Centre-appointed board of the real estate group, banks and financial institutions to give suggestions for an amicable resolution of the long-pending dispute.

A bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan also asked the counsel for the homebuyers and the land-owning agencies to furnish a two-page note giving suggestions to it within a week.

Around 22,000 homebuyers have been waiting for houses booked with Unitech for several years. A Government-appointed board has since taken over the management of the real estate firm.

On Wednesday, Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, appearing for the Unitech board of directors, referred to the financial difficulties and the roadblocks faced by the board.

The law officer said that the present board be allowed to withdraw and let a new board take over the affairs of the firm and deal with pressing issues, including the delivery of nearly 22,000 dwelling units to homebuyers.

“The object is to give homes to homebuyers,” the bench said, adding that some kind of amicable solution has to be found.

Besides three asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), the bench asked seven banks and financial institutions to suggest measures to deal with the impasse.

It referred to the fact that as of now, the total outstanding against the company is `14,129.85 crore. During the hearing, the bench asked where the monies deposited by the homebuyers had gone.

The law officer said the former promoters of the firm parked the money in tax-haven countries.

The bench said it had thought of a solution and listed the plea after a week to pass some orders in the case that has been pending since 2016.

Earlier, the bench said it would take a serious view of non-compliance of its orders by any state authorities in matters related to the real estate group and cautioned them against creating hurdles in the completion of the stalled housing projects.

On January 16 last year, coming to the rescue of thousands of homebuyers and facilitating disbursal of their stalled loans for flats constructed by Unitech, the top court granted exemption from registration under the RERA for different housing projects located in seven states.

It had said the order passed in the interest of justice would help in dispensing with the procedural requirements for releasing and advancing of loans to homebuyers of different Unitech projects.