Jaypee Scam: 20,000 JIL Homebuyers Continue to Suffer Even After 12 Years | A Report

A pall of gloom has enveloped the Jaypee homebuyers as the NCLT is yet to finalise the revival plan and hearings are still on.

Noida: It’s been over 12 years as thousands of Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL) home buyers in Noida, who are the victims of the mother of all real estate frauds in India, continue to anxiously wait for their flats. Stuck in long-drawn legal battles (the home buyers’ case is now being heard in the National Company Law Tribunal, or NCLT), the decade-old plight is lingering that left more than 20,000 Jaypee home seekers running from pillar to post, with many finally giving up.

A recent timeline of events:

1. In August 2017, the NCLT kicked off insolvency proceedings against the Noida-based realty major.
2. Five years down the line, the goal to settle the Rs 22,600 crore debt resolution — that had an initial deadline of six months under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 — is yet to be realised.
3. On November 6, 2019, the Supreme Court directed the completion of JIL’s insolvency process within 90 days, and ordered that the revised resolution plan be invited only from government-owned National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) and Mumbai-based Suraksha Realty.
4. After a super-lengthy resolution process, Mumbai-based Suraksha realty group got the approval of financial creditors and home buyers to take over the company in June last year.
5. The matter is now with the NCLT and the hearings on the resolution plan are underway.

How many people, how much money?

1. Currently, there are 18,767 active home buyers who have paid a collective principal amount of Rs 8,676 crore.
2. Nearly 413 home buyers have cancelled their bookings and their refund worth Rs 64 crore is still pending.
3. About 1,410 buyers have been issued offers of possession valued at Rs 528 crore, but no registration has taken place for those properties to date.
4. There are some frustrated Jaypee buyers who have stopped paying the EMIs and are just not bothered about the ramifications it will have on their credit history as they just cannot afford to pay both the rent and the EMI.
5. Several Army officers spent their entire retirement benefits to book flats in Jaypee Wish Town and other properties and are still living in rented premises.

Hear it from the buyers:

Jayashree Swaminathan, a home buyer who saw the entire drama unfold in front of her eyes, feels they may have to wait for another two-three years to get possession of their flats. “I could not fulfil the wish of my parents, especially my mother, of living together in our own abode. I am still living on rent in Delhi. The whole objective of buying this property is lost for which we paid through our noses. We are extremely, extremely tired of the legal battle,” Swaminathan told news agency IANS.

For Sudhir, a working professional who had booked two flats in Jaypee, the decision to secure his retirement as well as taking care of his daughter’s education backfired. “The only solace I can have now is that when the flats get completed, my daughter can decide what to do with them as we have been unable to enjoy the fruits of our hard work,” said Sudhir, who is living on rent in one of the sectors in Noida.

(With IANS inputs)