This landmark decision has come from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on plea of a Gurugram based home-buyer.
Home-buyers can file their claim even after the resolution plan to acquire insolvent real estate firm is approved by the committee of creditors (CoC). This landmark decision has come from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on plea of a Gurugram based home-buyer.
After hearing the plea of a home-buyer in a case related to Appu Ghar Retail, a project in Gurugram, the tribunal directed the appointed Resolution Professional (RP) to accept the buyers’ claim.
As per a report, Appu Ghar Retail, a project which is being developed by International Recreation and Amusement in Sector 29, Gurugram, was initiated last year under insolvency proceeding. As per the rules, RP was appointed by NCLT and later in November 2018 resolution plan submitted by a private firm to acquire the debt-ridden company was approved by CoC.
Once the firm was declared insolvent, home-buyers had demanded their money back. However, many allottees (home-buyers) of the real estate project missed the time line in filing their claim. They said that they failed to submit their claim because they were unaware of insolvency proceeding against the project.
RP rejected home-buyers' claim stating that the resolution plan has been approved by CoC and hence the claims can not be accepted. Therefore, one of the home-buyer then approached the NCLT.
Home-buyers called NLCT’s judgement a landmark decision in justifying their claim in the project in which they have invested. “Voting proportion of home-buyers are in proportion to the debt-ridden firm. Also, the home-buyers are categorised as a separate class hence they have right to make their claim,” said K K Kausal, a Noida based home-buyer.
However, advocate Mihir Kumar, who represented a section of Amrapali home-buyers in the Supreme Court was of the view that even though it will allow home-buyers to submit their claims at a belated stage, it would require a cut off date for submission of claims otherwise no resolution plan will ever be finalised.
“A resolution plan is submitted after considering the claims of all stakeholders and if claims are submitted after the presentation of resolution plan, the financial process in the said plan will go completely haywire. This may deter any company in coming forward to take over a real estate company,” Kumar added.
“There fore, this judgement instead of helping home-buyers is going to derail resolution process of a real estate company. It must be treated as a unique case and should not be the general norm,” he concluded.
