The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order appointing state-owned NBCC as the project management consultant to complete debt-ridden realty firm Supertech Ltd's 16 housing projects at nearly Rs 9,500 crore cost.
The top court was hearing two appeals against the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal or NCLAT order and expressed concern for home buyers.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan, issued notices to the parties on the appeals and stayed the NCLAT order that appointed National Buildings Construction Corporation or NBCC to take over the Supertech projects.
The NCLAT on December 12, 2024 asked the NBCC, a PSU under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, to complete 16 housing projects, comprising 49,748 homes in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Karnataka.
Around 27,000 home buyers await receiving homes in these projects.
The NCLAT judgment came after the October 1, 2014 order of the top court that allowed the insolvency appellate tribunal to examine and decide a proposal of the NBCC seeking to complete stalled housing projects.
The CJI asked the parties concerned to file their their responses in writing with regard to plans about the completion of stalled housing projects sans the NBCC.
"We respect the decision of Supreme Court to stay the NCLAT order which allowed NBCC to take over Supertech's projects arbitrarily without respecting the interests of other stakeholders like land authorities and lenders. We welcome the Supreme Court's instructions of inviting other companies to propose a solution which takes care of all stakeholders along with homebuyers. As promoters, we want a solution for all stakeholders including homebuyers, bankers and land authorities," said R K Arora, the chairman of Supertech group, in a statement.
The NCLAT had directed the NBCC to "start the process of award of work before March 31, 2025" and award of contract within a month thereafter and the construction was ordered to start from May 1, 2025 for the 16 projects.
It also ordered the "constitution of an apex court committee and project-wise court committee" for each project.
In each project-wise court committee, the NBCC was asked by NCLAT to nominate one member.
On May 11, 2023, the top court allowed a "project-wise resolution" process for Supertech Ltd and allowed construction of all other projects by the developer under the supervision of an interim resolution professional (IRP).
