NEW DELHI: In a major relief to around 49,000 Amrapali homebuyers, Supreme Court on Tuesday removed Amrapali group from its housing projects, cancelling its registration and land lease deeds and took control by appointing a receiver and asked NBCC to complete the projects.The much-awaited judgement, which can be a template for other stalled projects where home buyers have been cheated, has come down heavily on creditor banks and Noida and Greater Noida authorities as being equally culpable for the fraud perpetuated by Amrapali.The combined dues of banks and the authorities runs into around Rs 8,000 crore and a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit restrained them from staking any claim in the housing projects, holding that the dwellings that have been constructed or are to be completed belonged to homebuyers.“We hold that Noida and Greater Noida Authorities shall have no right to sell the flats of the home buyers or the land leased out for the realization of their dues. Their dues shall have to be recovered from the sale of other properties which have been attached. The direction holds good for the recovery of the dues of the various Banks,” it said.The court held Amrapali group and its CMD Anil Kumar and other directors responsible for siphoning off homebuyers money for personal gains and to expand their business empire. The court said the group set up several dummy companies using names of office boys and peons to divert money.The court said the amount received by the group from home-buyers was more than that spent on construction and payment of the land and directed Enforcement Directorate to do a thorough probe against the group and its officials to track diversion of funds and to catch the beneficiaries.Coming to the rescue of thousands of buyers who invested their hard earned money but were left in the lurch, the court said builders cannot be permitted to usurp and divert money of home buyers while all other authorities remain a silent spectator.“The registration of Amrapali Group of Companies under RERA shall stand cancelled. The various lease deeds granted in favour of Amrapali Group by Noida and Greater Noida Authorities for projects in question stand cancelled and rights henceforth, to vest in court receiver,” the bench said.It appointed senior advocate R Venkataramani as receiver who will execute through authorized person on his behalf the tripartite agreement for giving possession of flats to homebuyers.The apex court, which had earlier asked homebuyers not to pay dues to the builder, now directed them to deposit outstanding amounts with the Supreme Court within three months. This sum would be disbursed to NBCC for completion of projects. The NBCC, which had agreed to take over Amrapali projects, pegged the cost of construction to Rs 8,500 crore and demanded 10% as its charge but the court fixed its commission at 8% for for 46,575 flats in 19 projects in Noida and Greater Noida.The source of funds will need to be more carefully examined with NBCC outrightly refusing to invest its money. The auction of Amrapali group assets by Debt Recovery Tribunal is not progressing with no interest in the properties. SC-appointed forensic auditors have told the court that around Rs 11,000 crore is the recoverable amount and speed of construction work will depend on recovery of the amount.The court also directed Noida and Greater Noida Authorities to issue completion certificate and execute the tripartite agreement within one month in projects where homebuyers are residing and directed water and electricity supply be provided. There are around 9000 homebuyers who have so far residing in Amrapali housing projects.The court also granted a last opportunity to Amrapali group companies and Directors and other officials who are holding homebuyers money to deposit the amount in the court within one month and warned them that appropriate action shall be taken against them if they failed to comply with the order.“Amrapali Group made false promises to lure the public to invest in its projects, purposefully delayed construction, cheated home-buyers for the title of flats and trapped home-buyers in rental returns,” the court said, adding the builder floated several companies and used funds to infuse capital in other entities.