How String Of Tragedies Turned A Family's Home Dream Into Fight For Justice

Houses are built of bricks and mortar, but homes are made of dreams. For one family in Noida, a string of tragedies turned the search for a home into a long wait for justice.

In 2011, Rashmi Bhatnagar and Sanjeev Kumar Bhatnagar bought a flat at Jaypee Kube in Noida Sector 128 for nearly Rs 39 lakh. Over the next three years, Mr Bhatnagar, who was then working as a retired consultant, made payments totalling over Rs 20 lakh of the Rs 27 lakh demanded.

"My husband handled all the transactions. I had limited understanding of such matters so I did not really get into it," Ms Bhatnagar said.

With over 70 per cent of the payment done, the Bhatnagars were close to their dream home. But life had other plans. In 2015, Mr Bhatnagar suffered a silent heart attack. He had been suffering from severe diabetes and the heart attack, and the damage it caused went unnoticed. In 2017, just three weeks after his mother's death, Mr Bhatnagar died of a cardiac arrest. The back-to-back losses crippled the family emotionally, but another tragedy was waiting in the wings. Soon after Mr Bhatnagar's death, his daughter went through a difficult separation and returned to her parents' home with a little daughter. Within a few months, the Bhatnagars' world had come crashing down. Outside the Bhatnagar home, another story was unfolding. Jaypee Infratech had entered insolvency, throwing thousands of homebuyers into an abyss of uncertainty. But the Bhatnagars, struggling to cope with personal tragedies, could not keep track.

"I was completely lost and consumed by these personal tragedies. I could not focus on the status of our flat or the developments in the insolvency case. To make matters worse, communications from Jaypee Infratech went to my late husband's inbox," Mrs Bhatnagar said.

It was much later that the couple's son went through the flat's documents and the family realised that they had missed the deadlines to claim their dream home. The family wrote multiple emails to Jaypee and Surkasha Group, which had acquired the debt-ridden real estate firm, but got no response. Mrs Bhatnagar has now approached the Supreme Court, requesting its help in getting her flat.

"The delay in addressing the Jaypee flat issue was due to an overwhelming combination of grief, loss, and lack of access to essential information. My late husband invested nearly our life savings into this flat that has now become entangled in bureaucratic challenges beyond my control," she said. In November, a bench led by the Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna, issued a notice in her petition filed through Prateek Mishra, Advocate-on-Record, and has agreed to hear her pleas.

Ms Bhatnagar says she does not want a refund and is fighting to get the house. "This house is so much more than just a property to me. It's a reminder of my late husband, Sanjeev, and all the dreams we built together. It holds not just our financial investment, but the emotional threads of a life we had planned as a family. Losing him was devastating, and now the thought of losing this home feels like losing a part of him all over again."

"I am not seeking a refund; I am fighting to have the house, which means so much to me and my family. I have immense faith in the Supreme Court and have placed my hopes on the petition I have filed before it."

What Is Jaypee Insolvency Case

The dreams of thousands of homebuyers took a massive blow when debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech entered insolvency proceedings in 2017. What started was a long-drawn process riddled with legal complications. After the Suraksha Realty group finally got regulatory clearances several years later, a large section of homemakers filed their claims. Many, however, were not informed of the developments and missed the deadline. They then had to approach the courts and seek their intervention. While the processes are nearing completion, many like Rashmi Bhatnagar are still waiting for their dream home.

The number of homeowners who did not file claims for their homes is 1,139. Out of them, 538 homebuyers, who paid 80 per cent or more of the amount due, have now got the option to file claims.