Supreme Court: While considering this petition concerning the disbursement of funds by banks to builders-cum-developers through subvention schemes for various housing development projects in Noida, Greater Noida, Gurugram, and other nearby areas, the 3-Judge Bench of Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N. Kotiswar Singh, JJ., directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register the case under the appropriate provisions of law and proceed to investigate the same.
The Court took further took note that the CBI upon completing its preliminary enquiry as per previous instructions of the Court, found that a cognizable offence is made out. The matter is to be listed on 16-10-2025 before the Division Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh.
The case comprises of more than 170 petitions, which have been filed by over 1200 homebuyers/borrowers, raising issues of systematic failure of statutory and government authorities to discharge their functions, circumvention of regulatory framework by Banks and Housing Financial Corporations, and the resultant illicit benefits said to have been drawn by builders/developers at the cost of the homebuyers, who are now bearing the brunt of such failures.
the builders/developers advertised the ‘subvention schemes’ assuring payment of the EMI/pre-EMI(s) of the home-loans taken by the homebuyers to purchase the units in their projects till a specified cut-off date or till the date of delivery of possession. The scheme was implemented in most cases by taking loans through a tripartite agreement among the bank/financial institution, homebuyer(s), and the builder/developer. While these projects were launched in the years 2013-2015, most of the builder/developers started defaulting in payment of EMIs in the years 2018-2019. Resultantly, the banks began to demand payments from the homebuyers, and consequential failure to make the payments led to the coercive actions against the homebuyers, despite the units being incomplete and there being no occasion to offer possession.
Some of the aggrieved homebuyers approached Delhi High Court and having failed to get the desired relief, they have approached the Supreme Court under Article 136; while some others have invoked the writ jurisdiction of the Court for similar reliefs.
The Court on 4-3-2025, strictly took note of the blatant disregard and ignorance of the Court’s directions by the banks and builders, which hinted towards a possible collusion between the builders-cum-developers and the banks/financial institutions. Hence, the Court directed the Standing Counsel for the Central Bureau of Investigation (‘CBI’) to remain present before the Court on the next date of hearing to constitute a SIT and sought explanation as to why the CBI should not register a case and then proceed to investigate the nexus between the banks and the builders.
The Court noted that out of roughly 40 builders-cum-developers and roughly 30 banks/financial institutions, only 9 banks/financial institutions and 5 builders-cum-developers filed their compliance affidavits. “This blatant disregard and ignorance of the Court’s directions, coupled with their reluctance in appropriately assisting the Court, hints towards a possible collusion between the builders-cum-developers and the banks/financial institutions.” Hence, the Court considered it necessary to constitute a Special Investigation Team (‘SIT’) to uncover the nexus between the banks/financial institutions and the builders-cum-developers with respect to the development projects where the homebuyers have paid substantial amounts and where the development projects have not even been launched, have not completed construction, or have not begun construction.
Also Read: Explained | SC verdict slamming ‘builder-banks’ nexus in Delhi NCR and proposing CBI probe
[Himanshu Singh v. Union of India, Special Leave to Appeal (C) No(s).7649/2023, order dated 23-9-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
Mr. Rajiv Jain, Adv. (Amicus Curiae)
For Petitioner(s): Mr. Akshay Srivastava, AOR Mr. Gaurav Goel, AOR Mr. Vijay K. Jain, AOR
For Respondent(s): Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, ASG (mentioned by) Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR Mr. Anurag Tandon, AOR Mr. Ujjal Banerjee, AOR Mr. Kuber Dewan, Adv. Ms. Neeharika Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Kaustubh Srivastava, Adv. Ms. B. Vijayalakshmi Menon, AOR Mr. Anupam Singh, AOR Mr. Upmanyu Tewari, AOR Mr. Sanjay Kapur, AOR Mr. Deepak Goel, AOR Mr. Nitish Massey, AOR Ms. Amrita Kumari, AOR Mr. Kedar Nath Tripathy, AOR Mr. Anil Kumar, AOR Ms. Poornima Singh, AOR Ms. Rashmi Malhotra, AOR Mr. Md. Ali, AOR Mr. B. Shravanth Shanker, AOR Mr. Ajay Marwah, AOR Mr. Chandra Bhushan Prasad, AOR Ms. Rohini Prasad, AOR Mr. Kunal Malik, AOR Mr. E. C. Agrawala, AOR Ms. Sthavi Asthana, AOR Ms. Sunieta Ojha, AOR Dr. Pratap Singh Nerwal, AOR Mr. Suvidutt M.S., AOR Dr. Sushil Balwada, AOR Mr. Shantanu Awasthi, AOR M/s. Axess Legal Corp, AOR Dr. Sunil Kumar Agarwal, AOR Ms. Abiha Zaidi, AOR Mr. Pushkar Anand, AOR Mr. Suresh Chandra Tripathy, AOR Mr. Ajay Kumar Singh, AOR Mr. Sunil Kumar Sharma, AOR Ms. Sushma Verma, Adv. Mr. Sudarshan Lambha, AOR
