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In a significant development, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has set aside a plea seeking insolvency proceedings against Ansal Hi-tech Township Ltd, brought forth by its homebuyers invested in a project situated in Greater Noida.
The decision by NCLAT upholds a prior ruling issued by the Delhi-based bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in January 2023. The NCLT had previously rejected the plea filed by homebuyers, citing that the petitioners belonged to distinct projects and failed to meet the requisite criteria for initiating insolvency proceedings.
The contentious project, situated in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, faced legal scrutiny when the NCLT's ruling was challenged before the NCLAT. Homebuyers argued that their agreements with the developer defined 'Sushant Megapolis' as a 'unified project' and were executed prior to the enactment of the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act (RERA).
Homebuyers contended that the sprawling 1,500-acre 'Sushant Megapolis' encompassed various types of properties, including plots, built-up units, raw houses/flats/floors, and high-rise apartments spread across allocated sites within the project.
However, the NCLAT highlighted the stipulations outlined in the RERA Act, emphasizing the necessity for prior registration of real estate projects with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA). The tribunal clarified that under RERA, each phase of a project being developed in stages should be considered a distinct real estate project, necessitating separate registration for each phase.
Ansal Hi-tech Township Ltd was noted to have registered three types of agreements with the petitioners - Plot Allottee Agreement, Built-up Unit Allottee Agreement, and Apartment Allottee Agreement. The tribunal underscored that according to the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, flat allottees are categorized as financial creditors. Thus if the homebuyers want to initiate insolvency proceedings against a real estate project, they must jointly file a plea with a minimum of one hundred such allottees from the same project or with at least 10% of the total allottees, whichever is lesser.
Furthermore, the tribunal observed that the Township comprised multiple 'real estate projects' of diverse characteristics, each with distinct Building Sanctioned Plans and independent terms, reinforcing its stance against consolidating the grievances of the homebuyers under a single insolvency plea.
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