NCLAT foils attempt by Supertech to withhold information from homebuyers
An attempt by realtor Supertech Township Projects Ltd to stonewall homebuyers from seeking information about allottees has been thwarted by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
The homebuyers were seeking information about the number of allottees (100 or 1/10th of the total number of allottees of the project, whichever is less, excluding those with whom settlement has happened) to meet the threshold criteria to initiate the class action against Supertech Township Project.
The realtor has appealed against a 9 December 2020 NCLT order that asked it to provide the homebuyers with the required information. In its appeal, Supertech Township argued that ‘such direction were against the provision of the law and also against the Supreme Court direction maintaining status quo in the matter. It also argued that the requisite information has already been provided on the website of RERA.
However, the NCLAT dismissed the realtor’s appeal by saying that by merely directing the Corporate Debtor (Supertech Township) to provide information to the allottees to meet the threshold criteria to initiate the class action in the face of the ordinance laying such threshold limit, no legal right vested in the corporate debtor can be said to have been infringed.
It further said that in this age of transparency, knowledge and information revolution coupled with the fact that adequate information as required by the allottee is not displayed on the website of the Corporate Debtor, it was of the opinion that the order cannot be termed to be erroneous or unsustainable.
On Supertech’s argument that the direction of the NCLT went against the direction of the Apex Court, the NCLAT argued that Supreme Court’s direction to maintain status quo was with regards to initiation or continuance of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process in the pending cases, and that it cannot be interpreted to hold that the requisite information for initiating class action by an allottee under Section 7 of the I&B Code to meet the threshold criteria laid down under law.
It said that the corporate debtor and the regulator are under legal obligation to display the particulars in regard to allottees on their websites.
