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Coming to the aid of the aggrieved homebuyers in the 'Eco Village-4' project of the Supertech Limited at Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court last week directed the District Magistrate (GB Nagar), to make expeditious endeavors to recover homebuyers' hard-earned money from the real estate developer as expeditiously as possible.

The Bench presided by Justices Pritinker Diwaker and Dr. Yogendra Kumar issued the directions on a writ for mandamus filed by two homebuyers in the said project seeking directions for enforcement of recovery proceedings against Supertech Limited, issued by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, which had been pending for a long time.

The petitioners had alleged that the two recovery certificates were issued back in 2020 and 2021 for recovery of rupees 66,91,518 and rupees 1,08,91,875 respectively but the same were yet to be enforced against the company.

Disposing of the petition, the court asked the DM, GB Nagar to complete the process preferably within a time-bound period of 3 months. According to the petitioners, they had been running from pillar to post for recovery of their hard-earned money paid for the purchase of property which was never handed over to them.

Petitioners had claimed that though they were promised constructed flats within 3 years in the company's Eco Village-4 project, possession of the allotted apartments was not given to them even after 7 years. 

In August 2018, the petitioners, noticing no progress in the construction of the apartments, demanded a full refund along with applicable interest. Thereafter, receiving no response, they filed complaints against the company under sections 14, 18, 19 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act in pursuance of which the Authority in April 2019 had directed the company to disburse petitioner's payments and pay other dues. 

In this regard, when no response was received by the company, the RERA Authority had issued the alleged recovery certificates to the DM, GB Nagar, under section 40 of the RERA Act. However, the same were not complied with within the stipulated time which had forced the petitioners to seek relief from the high court. 

This is not the first instance where the courts had to step in for the rescue of the homebuyers in various projects of Supertech Limited. Last month, the Apex court had slammed the company had asked it to return homebuyer's money that was taken for house allotment in the twin tower 40 storeys building of company's Emerald Court project at Noida. Upholding a 2014 order of Allahabad High Court, in August, 2019 the Supreme Court had directed for the demolition of this project. 

Case Title: Shri Sransh Kapoor And Another v. State Of U.P. And 2 Others