Noida twin tower home buyers to be refunded in full, assures Supreme Court

All home buyers of the 40-storey twin towers in Noida, which would be demolished on Sunday, will get back the full amount deposited to real estate firm Supertech, Supreme Court assured on Friday. 

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, AS Bopanna, and JB Pardiwala said that the home buyers of the twin towers will get their total refund but for the time being, they will be paid from ₹one crore, which will be deposited by the IRP by September 30.

The apex court directed the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) of the firm, facing insolvency proceedings, to deposit ₹1 crore with the apex court registry.

This came when the court was hearing a batch of contempt petitions filed by home buyers.  “… would ensure that the home buyers of the twin towers get their refund in compliance with the August 31, 2021 order of the court.”

"In the meantime, in order to ensure that the home buyers who are covered by the judgement of this court get some refund of their outstanding dues, we direct the IRP to deposit an amount of ₹one crore with the registry of this court on or before September 30", it said.

The bench said that amicus curiae Gaurav Agarwal, will sit together with the IRP in the first week of October and jointly work out the outstanding dues of the home buyers and submit the details before the next date of hearing so that disbursement of some amount could be made to the hassled home buyers.

Earlier, the amicus said that Supertech Ltd has an inflow of ₹20 crore per month of which ₹15 crore goes towards the construction of the stalled project and five crores are there for meeting administrative expenses. He said that the IRP has assured that he will deposit ₹one crore by September 30 with the apex court registry, which is the amount diverted from the ₹five crore administrative expenses for payment of refund to the home buyers of twin-towers.

Counsel for home buyers said that till now they have uncertainty over payment of the refund by Supertech and hence court should mention that they will be paid in full but in installments, looking at the circumstances.

The erstwhile management of Supertech had earlier told the top court that only 59 home buyers are left to be refunded, while the rest of them have been refunded or shifted to other flats of the company.

(With inputs from agencies)