SC to set up fresh bench to hear pleas of home buyers against Amrapali

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will constitute a fresh bench to hear the plea of home buyers seeking delivery of their homes booked with the Amprapali group.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice J B Pardiwala was urged by a counsel for home buyers to set up a fresh bench as the matters pertaining to the Amrapali group were being heard by a bench headed by the then CJI U U Lalit, who demitted office on November 8.

"I will constitute a bench,” the CJI said.

The plea was mentioned by lawyer M L Lahoty, appearing for home buyers.

He said that a fresh bench was needed to be set up for hearing the grievances of home buyers.

A bench of the then CJI Lalit, since retired, and Justice Bela M Trivedi had been hearing the batch of petitions relating to the Amrapali group.

The apex court, in its July 23, 2019 verdict, had cracked down on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by home buyers and ordered the cancellation of registration of the Amrapali group under real estate law RERA and ousted it from prime properties in the national capital region (NCR) by nixing land leases.

The top court had directed a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged money laundering by realtors, providing relief to over 42,000 home buyers of the Amrapali Group with the verdict.

Besides the Enforcement Directorate, the Economic Offence Wing (EoW) of the Delhi Police and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) have also been investigating various cases lodged against former officials of the real estate group.