NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sharply rebuked real estate developer Supertech for not yet complying with its August 31, 2021 order of demolishing Noida’s Emerald Court twin towers and also over dilly-dallying on refunding the money of homebuyers in the project.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna told Supertech’s counsel, “We are going to send your directors to jail now because they are playing truant with the Supreme Court.” The court also told the builder to put its house in order and refund the entire amount along with interest to the home buyers by January 17. “Ensure that the payments are made by Monday, else there would be serious consequences,” the bench told the counsel.
The SC was hearing a contempt plea filed by some home buyers who had paid for the flats in the housing project. They alleged that Supertech invited them to take the refund but when they reached its office, they were told that the money would be paid back in instalments after certain deductions.
The developer’s counsel argued that there was some confusion about calculations. But the bench said, “You cannot charge interest on return of investment... Don’t do deductions which are not authorised by the orders of the court.” It also asked the Noida Authority to finalise the name of the agency that would be given the task to demolish the twin towers and posted the matter for hearing on Monday.