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Informist, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026

 

--SC upholds NCLAT order asking NBCC to take over 16 projects of Supertech 

 

By Surya Tripathi

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday upheld National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's 2024 order asking NBCC (India) Ltd. to take over 16 projects of Supertech Ltd. and act as project management consultant for their completion. In December, the appellate tribunal had said NBCC shall go the extra mile to ensure the projects are completed. The top court said that its verdict was to protect the interest of homebuyers and to ensure that they are able to secure social shelter for which they were eagerly waiting for more than two decades.

 

The bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that homebuyers' hard-earned money had gone into the corpus of Supertech, of which the substantial part had allegedly been siphoned off by the company. If homebuyers' interest is the central consideration, the other competing claims of secured creditors and land authorities, who had opposed NBCC taking over the projects, will have to be considered secondary for the time being, said Justice Kant. 

 

Once the predominant nature of the projects, namely the residential units, are complete and handed over to homebuyers with all the basic amenities, the surplus amount collected by NBCC then shall be distributed to other claimants by applying haircuts and equal footing principle, said the top court. The order passed by the appellate tribunal in bringing NBCC for completion of pending projects is neither unfair nor contrary to any express provision of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.  

 

The projects are meant for homebuyers and since these were incomplete for an indefinite period, they had suggested the name of NBCC for completion of projects, said the court. Such an approach by the appellate tribunal of choosing NBCC for completion of projects does not warrant any interference by the court, said the bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi.

 

The apex court noted NBCC's statement that all the projects will be completed in a time-bound manner. "We direct it(NBCC) to deploy all its resources to ensure that pending projects are completed within the prescribed timeline," said the top court. The apex committee formed by the appellate tribunal will provide the requisite aid and assistance to NBCC for projects' completion, said the court. It refrained the lower courts from passing any order that stops the completion of these projects.

 

The top court was hearing appeals by Apex Heights Pvt. Ltd., Assets Care and Reconstruction Enterprise Ltd., Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, Supertech's suspended director R.K. Arora and others against the appellate tribunal's 2024 order of choosing NBCC for the projects. 

 

Arora had argued that he should be allowed to complete the project of Supertech. However, the top court said that he is already undergoing insolvency proceedings and he will not be able to raise funds from the bank. Similarly, other petitioners and land authorities had contested the appellate tribunal's order saying that it could not have chosen a third party outside the corporate insolvency resolution process to complete the projects of Supertech. Meanwhile, most of the homebuyers had favoured NBCC for taking over the 16 projects of Supertech.

 

The case has its genesis from the Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal admitting a petition by Union Bank of India to start insolvency proceedings against Supertech. In 2024, the appellate tribunal had directed project-wise resolution of Supertech's projects and chose NBCC for completing the projects.  

 

NBCC had said the project management consultant fee was fixed at 8% of the tentative construction cost of INR 94.45 billion, which works out to INR 7.56 billion. NBCC was to complete the projects within three years, it had said in an exchange filing. The 8?e includes a 1% marketing fee, NBCC had said. The 16 projects would cover 49,748 houses in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Karnataka, the company had said. 

 

At 1338 IST, shares of NBCC (India) Ltd. were down 3.3% at INR 100.91 on the National Stock Exchange, and those of Union Bank of India were up 0.8% at INR 177.45.  

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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