The Supreme Court bench of Justices Dipak Misra and AM Khanwilkar, while hearing the petition by Unitech Residential Resorts Ltd. against the order passed by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), directed on May 8 that “distribution (of money to the flat buyers who want out) on pro rata basis, while calculation of interest on percentage basis will be done at the time of conclusion of the case.”

NCDRC had earlier directed the appellant (Unitech) to refund the amount deposited by the respondents (flat buyers).

Basically the appellant had one major gripe. The counsel for the appellant said: “My Lords have ordered that interests need to be calculated from 2010. But some of them bought flats in the year 2012. The principal sum has been deposited, now the interest sum needs to be calculated.”

A woman who was a buyer was present in the courtroom. She said: “We want money to buy a house, if we add up principal and interest, we can’t buy a house.”

Justice Misra replied: “We are trying to help you and when the case will be taken up in August, we will see what the amount is going to be.”

The bench also ordered that “during the pendency of the case the financing bank should not release the original documents. The compensation shall be debated at the time of hearing. Personal presence of directors is not needed.”

Earlier, as per the court’s order, the appellant had deposited principal amount with the registry of the court and 39 purchasers who had agreed to get out of the transaction had taken the amount on pro-rata basis of the initial deposit of Rs 15 crore.

A further sum of Rs two crore is lying with the registry. The court had directed that the appellant shall deposit the amount of interest at the rate of 14 percent from January 1, 2010 as directed by the Commission in respect to the 39 purchasers within four weeks.

—India Legal Bureau