Supreme Court: In a petition against the Judgment and Order of the High Court of Delhi, wherein the relief to the homebuyers/ petitioners for deferment of payment of Equated Monthly Instalment (‘EMIs’) to the Banks and financial institutions was lifted, the Division Bench of V. Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal, JJ., issued notice and granted interim protection to the homebuyers for deferred payment of EMIs.
Background
In the matter at hand, the homebuyers and the builder had an arrangement that the EMIs to the banks or Non-Banking Financial Corporations (‘NBFCs’) would be paid by the builders till the time the possession of the allotted homes was given to the homebuyers and the homebuyers shall pay the EMIs once possession is given to them. However, the builder had failed to make timely EMI payments to the banks and NBFCs and was undergoing Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (‘CIRP’) proceedings. Subsequently, the homebuyers were approached by the Financial Institutions for deferred payments affecting their CIBIL Score. s
Thus, the petitioner had approached the High Court seeking writ of mandamus/ certiorari directing the Banks/ NBFCs to not charge the pre-EMIs or full EMIs from the petitioner till the possession of the allotted homes. The petitioner’s case was that the builder had failed to fulfil and abide by their duties and obligations, depriving the petitioners of their basic fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The High Court vide order dated 25-05-2022 granted relief to the petitioner by directing the Bank/NBFC to not take any coercive steps against the petitioner and to amend the CIBIL scores of the petitioner to ensure that the petitioner was not financially prejudiced.
However, the said relief was lifted by the High Court while hearing a batch of petitions, vide order dated 14-03-2023. Thus, aggrieved by the order of the High Court, the petitioner approached the Court.
Court’s Decision
The Court, while issuing notice, granted interim relief to the petitioner for deferment of payment of EMIs till the possession of their allotted homes. The Court said that since the petitioner has had the benefit of interim protection from 25.05.2022 till the date on which the impugned order was passed, the petitioner shall be entitled to the benefit of the same interim protection till the next date of hearing before the Court.
[Rohit Kumar v. Union of India, Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No(s). 10173/2023, Order dated: 16-05-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this matter
For Petitioners: Advocate on Record Abhinay, Advocate Sakshi Jain, Advocate Pooran Chand Roy, Advocate L.K. Srivastava, Advocate Parul Khurana