The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni while staying the arbitration proceedings that were started on his plea by the Delhi High Court against the Amrapali Group. A bench of Justices UU Lalit and Bela M Trivedi noted that the interest of the Amrapali homebuyers needs to be secured and the former management of the Amrapali Group cannot be expected to represent the cause of the homebuyers in the arbitration proceedings.
Hence, the Delhi High Court initiated an arbitration proceeding against the Amrapali Group on Dhoni's plea.
Back in March 2019, Dhoni approached the Supreme Court seeking their direction to the Amrapali Group for the payment of pending dues allegedly coming up to Rs 40 crore for his services to the real-estate company. The court also asked the Noida and the Greater Noida authorities to explore how a fund of Rs 700 crore can be arranged by selling off unutilised properties of Amrapali and its directors.
Stating that homebuyers should not be burdened unnecessarily, the court again opposed the SC-appointed receiver’s proposal that homebuyers deposit an additional amount of Rs 200 per square foot for their flats in the sinking fund to meet the shortfall for the construction of the projects.
According to the receiver’s report, “the sinking cum reserve fund shall be created to make provision of shortfall in construction cost and interest cost if any. All the homebuyers across shall be asked to deposit a sum calculated at Rs 200 per square foot for booked units in that and such funds, if not utilised, shall be refunded back to them on overall completion of the projects. Since the initial booking made by the home buyers, the construction cost has increased.”
The court has now slated the hearing for August 1.
In January 2019, the top court gave the go-ahead to the government-owned National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to start the process of completing the two stalled Amrapali housing projects.
