Noida: National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has asked Apex Court Committee (ACC), set up to supervise construction, fund management and distribution of receivables of the 16 stalled Supertech projects that are being completed by National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), to share the dates by which the construction of each project is expected to be completed before the next hearing on Nov 6.In its Oct 1 order, the tribunal noted that each project, including Sports Village, Ecovillage 1, 2, 3, UP Country and Czar Suites in Greater Noida and Eco Citi, Romano, Capetown and North Eye in Noida, was at a different construction stage and directed the court-appointed committee to update it on the finances available for each project.Of the rest, two projects each are in Gurgaon and Meerut and one each in Uttarakhand and Bengaluru. Together, the projects were launched between 2010 and 2012. Around 14,000 homebuyers are still waiting for their flats in these projects for almost two decades.In its Sept 24 affidavit, ACC, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice Krishna Murari, had informed the tribunal that construction of all the 16 stalled Supertech projects would commence from Jan 16 next year but stopped short of sharing the completion dates. The affidavit stated that NBCC was currently finalising tender documents and proposed to issue 27 or more separate sub-tender packages for the projects. NBCC already floated one tender for the Supertech River Crest project in Rudrapur on Sept 16, it said.“While we find the ACC is taking steps towards realising the commencement of construction and thus we take on record the fresh timelines. However, we find that there is no concrete date of completion of construction given in the affidavit, though noted it shall be between 12-36 months,” the tribunal said.In Sept, NCLAT took note of the slow progress in the construction of the stalled Supertech projects and sought a status report from NBCC, its project management consultant (PMC). It had also directed ACC to file, within two weeks, the steps taken by it so far. The directives were issued during an Aug 25 hearing, where the counsel for homebuyers expressed concern over the deviation from the project implementation timeline by the court-appointed committee and NBCC.Recently, a group of homebuyers of Supertech’s North Eye project in Noida Sector 74 approached the tribunal seeking directions against NBCC for the delay in project execution.Responding to the plea, the tribunal had referred to a Feb 5 Supreme Court judgment which stated that there should be no impediment to the completion of the housing projects, and directed that no tribunal or court, including the high courts, should pass any interim order or direction stopping any project from being commenced by NBCC. The top court order said that if there were grievances by any entity, they would be at liberty to approach it for appropriate direction.The tribunal said the jurisdiction to replace the project management consultant and appoint a new one was vested in ACC, and that too if NBCC expressed its inability to complete a particular project within the timeline. “Admittedly, such a stage has not come, and we need to focus on the way forward to see as to how the projects are to be completed at the earliest, and the possession of the flats be handed over to the flat allottees/owners,” the tribunal said.
