The Supreme Court has voiced strong concern over the growing volume of real-estate disputes in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, noting that delayed housing and redevelopment projects in these regions are tarnishing the credibility of developers.

Hearing a case involving a Mumbai society’s redevelopment, the Bench said the scale of distress—affecting lakhs of homebuyers—stands in sharp contrast to states like Gujarat, where such disputes are minimal, according to a report by The Tribune.

”This problem of real estate is very severe in these two places. In Delhi-NCR, there are lakhs and lakhs of homebuyers affected by housing projects. In Mumbai, it’s the case with the re-development projects. Nowhere this happens. In Gujarat, you will not find a single case where there are disputes with regard to real-estate projects. This affects the reputation of real-estate developers,” a Bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice PB Varale said on Friday.

While hearing a dispute on re-development of a Mumbai housing society, the Bench said the magnitude of real-estate cases was severe in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.

Justice Pardiwala asked the lawyers appearing in the matter on behalf of different builders to ponder over the issue.

The top court has been dealing with several real-estate disputes related to Unitech, Amrapali Group, Jaypee and Supertech Group, where thousands of homebuyers are contesting delayed possession of their flats by the developers.