The Supreme Court has agreed to hear NBCC's plea against an NCLAT order refusing RERA exemptions for completing 16 stalled Supertech projects, with the matter posted for hearing on September 24.
The Supreme Court issued notice on Monday on a plea filed by state-owned NBCC, challenging an NCLAT order that refused to exempt the company from certain RERA compliance requirements while it works to complete 16 stalled Supertech Ltd projects. A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, has posted the matter for hearing on September 24. This isn't a dispute over whether the projects should be completed, that's already settled, it's a fight over how much operational flexibility NBCC gets while doing it.
These 16 projects span nearly 50,000 homes across four states, with around 27,000 homebuyers still waiting for possession, some for close to two decades. This traces back to Supertech's Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process, which began March 25, 2022, following a Section 7 application by Union Bank of India. NBCC was subsequently brought in to take over construction, a role the Supreme Court upheld on February 5, 2026, when it backed the NCLAT's December 2024 order directing NBCC to complete the projects expeditiously and restrained other tribunals and high courts from interfering with the process.
The specific relief NBCC wants centres on money movement. Under RERA, each project typically needs its own separate bank account, with 70% of amounts collected from buyers deposited into that dedicated account, funds tied to that specific project alone. NBCC argues this project-wise escrow structure makes it difficult to deploy available funds efficiently across all 16 projects, some further along than others, some barely started.
The company has estimated completing already-sold units alone will require fresh investment of roughly ₹1,700 crore against projected receivables of about ₹2,200 crore from homebuyers, with delivery timelines ranging from about a year for advanced projects to as long as three years for the ones furthest behind. NBCC has pointed to its experience managing the Amrapali projects, where the Supreme Court cancelled the original developer's RERA registration and installed NBCC as project manager, as a workable precedent for this same approach.
The NCLAT's May 22, 2026 order was direct on this point, the tribunal held it was "not competent to grant any exemption" from statutory RERA provisions, reasoning that a tribunal simply doesn't have the jurisdiction to waive requirements set by statute. It noted that RERA authorities had already been directed to process and grant necessary approvals within a specified timeframe, which it considered sufficient to address NBCC's practical concerns without needing a formal exemption. Attorney General R. Venkatramani, appearing for NBCC, argued before the Supreme Court that this jurisdictional question, whether such flexibility can be granted at all and by whom, is exactly what needs resolving.
The Centre and Ram Kishor Arora, Supertech's former director, have both been asked to respond before the next hearing. Worth being clear about what this notice does and doesn't mean, the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the plea is a procedural step, not a decision on the merits. Even if NBCC eventually gets the relief it's seeking, RERA flexibility alone doesn't translate into immediate possession, construction pace, contractor availability, funding execution and project-level approvals all still determine when any individual buyer actually gets their keys.
Given how many of the affected Supertech projects sit in Noida and Greater Noida specifically, this case is worth following closely for what it says about how large-scale project rescues actually play out in practice, not just in court orders. It's a useful real-world example of what we've covered about RERA compensation cases and developer litigation history.
Before assuming that a court-ordered rescue will lead to a quick resolution, it's worth checking the project's actual RERA and NCLT status.
