Above: Buyers staging a protest against the Jaypee Group in Noida

Deprived buyers planning to take a more aggressive path with 4,000 civil and criminal suits against erring realtor

Jaypee Infratech has a bigger fight in its hands, vis-a-vis approximately 32,000 deprived homebuyers. On Monday (September 4), the Supreme Court had stayed the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) insolvency proceedings against the realtor, but on Tuesday (September 5) IDBI Bank requested the court to go back on its Monday order and restore the insolvency proceedings. The bank said that a huge number of home buyers, who feel cheated, have decided on 4,000 more individual suits, both civil and criminal.

The court has admitted IDBI’s request and decided that the next date of hearing would be on September 11.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing IDBI, submitted that the order of stay benefitted Jaypee, because the property has gone back into their hands from the official liquidator. He said that the NCLT’s Insolvency Resolution Professional will take care of the distraught homebuyers.

The basis of the court’s stay on Monday was to give relief to the homebuyers who then had the opportunity of availing of their dream homes in which they have already invested their life’s savings. IDBI, on the other hand, wants to recover dues to the tune of Rs 526 crore from the company.

The fact is that the stay actually gave the buyers more confidence for the fight. The fight, as per reports in the media, would be more vocal, with meetings set up with ministers and letters to the Prime Minister, as well as filing of criminal cases.

Pankaj Gupta, a disgruntled buyer in Jaypee Wish Town’s Kensington Park Apartment project has been quoted in The Business Standard as saying: “The plan is to bombard them with multiple court cases, so that the developers remain engaged and tangled in legal hassles. They are a huge company but even for them to handle 4,000 individual cases would be a lot. There are home buyers who have already filed court cases over non-delivery of the promised property and cheating, among other charges. More are planning to do the same over the next few weeks.”

—India Legal Bureau