The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has cleared the exit plan submitted by the promoters of the Gurugram-based Sidharth Buildhome Pvt Ltd, paving the way for over 800 buyers to get their homes.
According to the NCLT verdict, a Project Monitoring Committee will be constituted through which retired Supreme Court judges will monitor the timely completion of the projects to ensure that the buyers get the houses. On the other hand, the promoter of the company, Sidharth Chauhan, has committed to hand over the possession of the houses to the buyers of the residential project Sidharth NCR One/Greens within 6 months and to the buyers of Sidharth Estella within 12 months, after getting necessary approvals.
The case
Sidharth Buildhome Pvt Ltd launched a residential project in the year 2010 under the name Sidharth NCR One / Greens and in the year 2011 under the name Sidharth Estella, whereas in NCR One/Greens, the houses were to be allotted to the buyers in the year 2014 and in Estella in the year 2015. But in 2014, the construction of both the projects got stalled. Most of the buyers had paid more than 95% of the cost of the property till 2014-2015. More than 800 buyers’ hard-earned money was stuck and there was no solution in sight.
Since then the buyers have approached forums like EOW, NCDRC, RERA to resolve the issue but could not get any respite. Then the matter reached NCLT. On March 4, 2021, Sidharth Buildhome Private Limited approved the evacuation plan presented by the promoters of the company M/s Sidharth Buildhome Pvt Ltd. On 24 May 2023, a large majority of home buyers voted for the evacuation plan in favor of the builders. Now after the decision of the NCLT court, people have started feeling that their investment is worthwhile.
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How the matter reached NCLT
Punjab National Bank, the lender for the construction of both of these projects, filed an insolvency proceedings application against the company in the year 2020, which was approved by the law tribunal in the month of March 4, 2021. An insolvency resolution professional took over the company, the first round of bidding process commenced in the month of July 2021 which saw 3 qualified bidders including the promoters themselves bidding for the company.
In the first proposal, the committee of creditors of the corporate debtor (SBPL), which constituted Punjab National Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank and the buyers, considered the proposals and decided to reject all the bidding applicants as their terms and conditions were not found unsuitable for the homebuyers.
The bidding process in the second proposal started in the year 2022 which saw two qualified bidders including the promoters who submitted their resolution plan under section 12A of the IBC. This time, the buyers found the ex-promoters’ offer acceptable as they were committed to deliver the flats in a time-bound manner and at no extra cost to the homebuyers. The other bid involved additional costs on homebuyers and no committed delivery timelines, after which voting began on January 23 this year, which saw the ex-promoters’ plan passed with 92.85% votes.
What next?
Following the NCLT verdict, the ex-promoters have committed to work round-the-clock to deliver homes to the buyers along with a fund of Rs 15 crore as a pre-condition for approval of the scheme.
Welcoming the decision of NCLT, SBL COO Krishan Bajoria said that Sidharth NCR One / Greens, located in Sector 95 of Gurugram, was launched in the year 2010. Spread over 10.71 acres of land, a total of 10 towers are to be built in this project. 5 towers of phase 2 are stuck. Out of total 555 flats, 392 flats are stuck in 5 towers of Phase 2. On the other hand, Sidharth Estella, located in Sector 103 of Gurugram, was launched in 2011, which was to be completed by 2015. Of the total 16 towers of this 15.74-acre project, 8 towers are stuck.
He added, “A major part of both the projects is ready and now as soon as necessary approvals are received by the company, further construction work will be started as well as the possession of their houses will be handed over to the buyers at the scheduled time.”
Now investors of both these projects of Sidharth Group seem to be happy now. Mit Kumar Lal, a buyer of Sidharth Estella project, said, “We are elated with the historic judgment by NCLT and hope to get the house we have been waiting for 12-13 years very soon.”
Nidhi Singh, a flat buyer in Sidharth NCR One/Greens, said, “Today it has been 12 years since we waited for our house, but now with the NCLT verdict, we are hopeful that we will get our house soon.”
“This is certainly a very welcoming decision by the Hon’ble NCLT, where they have revived the company looking at the best interest of homebuyer. We are committed to handover the flats to the homebuyers once all the formalities are completed,” said Krishan Bajoria, chief operating officer of the SBL Group.
