The top court was hearing petitions from homebuyers in NCR, who allege being forced by banks to pay EMIs for flats under subvention plans despite not receiving possession. The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to start a preliminary inquiry into the projects of real estate giant Supertech Limited in the NCR.
During the reign, the court witnessed an “unholy nexus” among banks and developers. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh heard an affidavit submitted by the CBI and asked for a list of DSPs, inspectors, and constables from the DGPs of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to assist in constituting a special investigation team (SIT).
The court also directed the CEOs and administrators of Greater Noida Authority, Noida Authority, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, and RBI to nominate one senior officer from each organization within a week to help the SIT.
This order came after a string of petitions by home buyers who had booked flats under subvention schemes in several housing schemes in the NCR, mainly Noida, Greater Noida, and Gurugram. They claimed banks were coercing them to make EMIs without handing over possession of their flats.
The Supreme Court had held earlier that thousands of home buyers were impacted by the subvention scheme, wherein banks disbursed 60 to 70 per cent of the home loan to builders despite the fact that projects were not completed on time.
The highest court of the land had also directed the CBI to detail its strategy for probing the “builder-banks nexus,” which it suspects has cheated thousands of homebuyers in the NCR, and to delve deeper into the matter.
