Supreme Court has directed real estate major Unitech Ltd to deposit an amount of 5 crore rupees in its Registry, for failing to hand over apartments in Noida area to consumers which was to be given three years ago. A bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan also warned the developer to deposit the amount by August 12, failing which its directors may be sent to judicial custody.
The order came yesterday, during the hearing of a plea filed by Unitech against National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission’s (NCDRC) October 12, 2015 order. NCDRC had directed the firm to pay compensation and litigation costs for delay in handing over three flats, in project Burgandy in Sector 96 of Noida in Uttar Pradesh. The apex consumer commission had also directed Unitech to hand over possession of the flats on or before October 31, 2017.
The complainants had moved the commission alleging that despite having paid more than 95 per cent of the agreed sale consideration to the real-estate major, the possession of the flats have not been offered to them and the construction was still far from complete. On May 9, the apex court had directed Unitech to deposit the amount by June 10, 2016. Later, the firm had moved an application seeking extension of time for depositing the amount.