In a big relief for Amrapali home buyers—numbering nearly 46,000—the Supreme Court in May said it may give ownership rights of all the group’s projects to authorities in Noida and Greater Noida to complete the construction and hand over the flats to the homeowners. The top court has been contemplating various steps to safeguard the interest of the home buyers, who invested in the Amrapali Group.

The court took a serious note of diversion of funds, money invested by home buyers and the financial misconduct by the real estate group. The top court observed that the group had paid Noida and Greater Noida authorities a meagre10 percent of the value of the land and that the group still owed Rs 4,545 crore.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U.U. Lalit said Noida and Greater Noida authorities should get all the title deeds of the land allocated to the Amrapali projects. These authorities had originally allotted the land for all the housing projects. Advocates for homebuyers M.L. Lahoty and Anchit Sripat contended that lease of land should be terminated, and that the land should be handed over to Noida and Greater Noida authorities.