Real estate major Supertech today expressed its inability in the Supreme Court due to demonetisation to deposit Rs 10 crore for refunding those home buyers who want to wriggle out of its disputed Emerald Court project in Noida.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi was urged by the developer to grant two months' time for depositing the amount.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for the firm, said that due to the demonitisation drive it was not able to raise Rs 10 crore to be deposited in the apex court registry.
He sought two months' time to deposit the amount with the registry as directed by the apex court.
The bench then asked the developer to deposit the amount by March 20 but it made it clear that it will be the final opportunity give to it for depositing the amount.
The apex court had on November 8 directed Supertech to deposit Rs 10 crore by January 3 for refunding those home buyers who want to wriggle out of its disputed project, which have been found to be non-compliant of building laws by NBCC.
It had noted that some of the home buyers wanted to remain in the building but some wanted their refunds of the investment made.
The National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) in its report had said, "The open space available between the two towers Tower 1 (Aster 2) and Tower 17 is less than 20.45 metres as prescribed in the NBC rules.
"Thus from the above observations and inferences, NBCC concludes the opinion that the two towers, Tower 1 (Aster 2) and Tower 17 are not compliant with the REG 24.2.1(6)of Noida Building Regulations 2010."
The apex court had earlier said that if the project is violative of the building laws, then it will be demolished.
The court had on September 6 given a stern message to the firm asking it to return money to investors who wanted refund.
The company had earlier told the court that a total of 628 people had approached the company, of whom 274 have sought other arrangements, 74 have asked for re-investment and 108 have sought refund.
Earlier, the apex court had directed the company to
deposit Rs five crore in its registry as part of refund to homebuyers for the project in which the Allahabad High Court had ordered demolition of the twin towers.
The high court had on April 11, 2014 ordered demolition of the two 40-storey residential twin towers -- Apex and Ceyane -- in Noida and directed Supertech to refund money to homebuyers with 14 per cent interest in three months.
The two towers have 857 apartments of which about 600 flats have already been sold.
The apex court had on February 16, 2015 directed Supertech to refund money to the flat owners, saying, "Developers can't take investors for a ride.
