New Delhi, Jan 16 (PTI) Coming to the rescue of thousands of home buyers and facilitating disbursal of their stalled loans for flats constructed by real estate firm Unitech Ltd, the Supreme Court on Thursday granted exemption from registration under RERA for different housing projects located in seven states.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Notiswar Singh said the order in the interest of justice will help in dispensing with the procedural requirements for releasing and advancing of loans to home buyers of different Unitech projects.

"We accordingly direct that all the ongoing projects of Unitech shall remain exempted from registration under the RERA till further orders," the bench ordered.

Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, every project measuring more than 500 sq m or more than eight apartments are required to be registered with the RERA.

The top court also issued notices to banks and financial institutions, which has declared the loan accounts of home buyers as Non-Performing Assets (NPA) as the projects completion were delayed, due to financial problems faced during the erstwhile management of Unitech Group and for non-compliance under RERA Act.

It issued the notices on a plea of Unitech Ltd, which is currently being run by a government appointed board of directors, seeking directions for disbursal of stalled loan amounts of the home buyers.

It has contended that the banks and financial institutions, which have earlier sanctioned loans to the home buyers for purchasing units in Unitech Projects have stopped payments of balanced dues on account of projects not moving forward.

Unitech Ltd. has further contended that now that the projects have been revived, directions be issued to the financial institutions for disbursal of loans of home buyers.

It said that the home buyers have till now made around 70 per cent of their payments for their units but banks thereafter stalled the disbursal of loan amount.

The top court also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to deploy police force in three projects being constructed in Noida, where Unitech group is facing problems from local people and remove any encroachments at the site.

It asked the Noida Commissioner of Police to appoint a nodal officer, who will be responsible for deploying appropriate police force at project sites of Unitech and can be reached out in case of any exigency.

It also directed the chairperson of Uttar Pradesh State Pollution Control Board to grant environmental clearances to the projects of Unitech being constructed at Noida.

The top court asked the Chief Executive Officer of NOIDA to grant approval for the three projects and if any issues remain unresolved, then it should be raised before the committee headed by former apex court judge Justice AM Sapre on January 21.

On October 22, last year, the top court permitted the Centre-appointed board of directors of Unitech Ltd to seek police assistance to deal with "impediments" created by third parties on properties of the embattled realty firm.

The top court had on January 20, 2020 come to the rescue of over 12,000 hassled homebuyers of Unitech Ltd by permitting the union ministry of corporate affairs to take "total management control" of the real estate firm and appointed retired Haryana cadre IAS officer Yudvir Singh Malik as chairman and managing director (CMD).

It had also granted immunity to the new board from any legal proceedings against for some time and said the proceedings initiated against the firm, subsequent to any court order would also stand suspended till further orders.

The apex court had clarified that the newly constituted board can take any commercial decision in the interest of homebuyers and with regard to any pending projects.

It had permitted the Board of Directors "to raise funds due from the home buyers, and to sell the unsold inventory of stock and the unclaimed inventory available for reselling".

It had also allowed the board to monetise the unencumbered assets of the company for completion of housing units.

On December 18, 2019, the top court had asked the Centre if it was agreeable to revisit its 2017 proposal as there is urgent need for the projects of Unitech Ltd. to be taken up by a specialised agency, so as to ensure completion in a time bound schedule in the interest of the home buyers.

In 2017, the Centre had moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking suspension of the current directors and taking control of the management of Unitech Ltd but had later withdrawn the proposal after a stay on its move from the apex court.

In 2018, the apex court had directed a forensic audit of Unitech Ltd and its sister concerns and subsidiaries by Samir Paranjpe, Partner, Forensic and Investigation Services in M/s Grant Thornton India.

The forensic auditors have also submitted their report which said that Unitech Ltd received around Rs 14,270 crore from 29,800 homebuyers mostly between 2006 and 2014 and around Rs 1,805 crore from six financial institutions for the construction of 74 projects.

The audit revealed that around Rs 5,063 crore of homebuyers' money and around Rs 763 crore of fund received from financial institutions were not utilised by the company and high value investments were made off-shore tax-haven countries between 2007 and 2010.

The top court had ordered investigation into the omission and commission of promoters of Unitech Ltd under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). PTI MNL ZMN