New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed Supertech builders in Noida to repay the principal amount with 14 per cent interest to those homebuyers who wanted a refund of their investment.  

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud passed this order while hearing a batch of petitions against the order passed by the Allahabad high court directing demolition of the 40-floors twin Emerald Towers being constructed by Supertech builders in Noida. 

The Court also ordered setting up of a Web portal to deal with the grievances of home buyers.

During the resumed hearing of the appeals, counsel for homebuyers pleaded for payment of interest along with the principal amount as they had virtually lost their investments. About 300 homebuyers, however, informed the court that they were willing to take possession of the flats if the court were to set aside the high court order.    

The appellants had pointed out that when the initial sanctioned plan was for ground plus nine floors, which was later revised to ground plus 11 and later to ground plus 24 floors, how could the builder proceed to construct 40 floors?

The two towers have 857 apartments in total and of these, about 600 flats had already been sold.

The courts appointed advocate Gaurav Agarwal as amicus curiae and asked him to collect information from the homebuyers whether they wanted possession of the flats or refund of the amount. The court asked him to create a portal in which the homebuyers could exercise their option.

The CJI said that once the information was collected, the court would pass further orders and meanwhile Supertech should pay the principal and 14 per cent interest to those who want a refund of their amounts. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on October 23.