SC Warns Amrapali Group on repeated non-compliance, "hood-winking" of its order

Taking note of the repeated non-compliance and "hood-winking" of the Supreme Court's order, the top court on November 20 warned real estate firm Amrapali Group stating, "We make it very clear that Amrapali Group should disclose each and every activity in clear terms it took since 2008 onwards related to the construction of residential, commercial, personal, official, and financial where the money was transferred. If all the disclosures are not made by Amrapali Group and its directors, then the writing is very clear on the wall."

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and UU Lalit then instructed the firm to reveal details of all its assets of all directors since 2008, their family members, relatives, chief financial officers, and statutory auditors in the country and abroad by December 3, 2018 and to disclose each and every detail and activity including financial transactions by which home-buyers' money was transferred.

The case was filed in the Apex Court by home-buyers against Amrapali Group as it failed to hand over possession of their flats on time. Notably, the court is seized of a batch of petitions filed by home buyers who are seeking possession of around 42,000 flats booked in projects of the Amrapali Group.

According to the bench, the company is responsible for the diversion of home-buyers' money.

The following steps were taken by the SC in this matter:

• It instructed Amrapali Group to furnish details of all land which has been sub-leased, structures raised on it, and financial benefits to the company;

• It instructed Amrapali Group to depute four people for assisting the forensic auditors in their investigation of the company's affairs;

• It directed the banks, Noida and Greater Noida authorities, and other bodies concerned to cooperate with the forensic auditors stating that they have been acting on the direction of the court and any non-compliance will be treated as contempt of the court;

• It directed the court registry to accept Rs. 1-crore demand draft given by Amrapali's CFO Chander Wadhwa.

Finally, posting the matter for further hearing on a later date, the court stated that this was the final opportunity given to the firm, its directors, and promoters to comply with every direction passed by it since May 2017.