NOIDA: The Supreme Court has given a big relief to the home buyers of NCR. The court has given relief to those distressed people of Noida and Delhi NCR, to whom the developers and builders were not giving possession of the flat due to delay. Also, the court has forbidden the builders from taking any strict action for EMI. This relief is for those buyers who had booked flats under the subsidy plan. However, due to the delay of the builders, they have not yet got possession of their flats. The Supreme Court has said that in such cases, the bank or the builder cannot take any strict action against them regarding the payment of EMI. No complaint will be filed against them in the case of a check bounce.
The court gave instructions not to take punitive action
The Supreme Court has directed that no punitive action will be taken against the home buyers by the banks or builders about the payment of EMI and no complaint will be filed against them in the case of check bounce. The home buyer does not fault this whole matter.
Know what is subsidy plan
Under the subsidy scheme, the bank puts a fixed amount in the builder’s account and the builder has to pay this amount under EMI but he does not do so and the bank files a case against the home buyer. When the victims of such cases approached the High Court, the court rejected their petition. At the same time, the Supreme Court heard the matter and completely banned such action by ordering a stay on all cases.
Strict action will be taken if the order is not followed
The petition said that the High Court failed to take into account the fact that both the builder and the bank worked in collusion. The bank acts as a medium to get the loan of the poor home buyer approved and transfer money from the bank to the builder. Here the home buyer is pushed into litigation for an amount that he never saw or received. The actions of both the builder and the bank violate the tripartite agreement. These are also a violation of the statutory guidelines of RBI/NHB.
Two weeks given by court
Agreeing to examine the grievances of home buyers, the Supreme Court gave two weeks to the builders/developers to file a counter affidavit containing details of their assets. The court made it clear that if they fail to comply with its order, it will be forced to take strict action against them.
What is the whole matter
Under the subvention scheme, the banks put the sanctioned amount directly into the accounts of the builders, who have to pay EMIs on the sanctioned loan amount till the possession of the flat is handed over to the home buyers. But when the builders started defaulting on paying EMIs to the banks as per the tripartite agreement, the banks started taking action against the buyers to recover the amount. Troubled by this action of the banks, a large number of home buyers had approached the Delhi High Court but in 2023 the High Court refused to grant them relief, saying that they had alternative remedies available. After this, they approached the apex court, where they got interim protection.