The Supreme Court of India has pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over delays in probing the alleged “unholy nexus” between banks and real estate developers accused of duping homebuyers under subvention schemes in Delhi-NCR and other parts of the country.

A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant said prolonging the investigation would only increase the agony of thousands of homebuyers who have already been harassed by developers allegedly acting in collusion with financial institutions. The court also refused the CBI’s request to transfer some cases to state agencies and directed the agency to convert its preliminary enquiries into regular cases, PTI reported.

The bench, which refused to transfer those cases to the state agencies, asked the CBI to probe all cases and convert the preliminary enquiries into regular cases.

“This court cannot wait for an indefinite period for the conclusion of the investigation,” the bench said, adding, “delay or prolonging of the investigation will only lead to more agony for the homebuyers who have already been harassed by the builders and developers, apparently in collusion and connivance with financial institutions and banks.”

The top court was hearing a batch of pleas of more than 1,200 homebuyers, with the lead petition filed by Himanshu Singh through advocate Akshay Srivastava, who had booked flats under the subvention plans in various housing projects in the NCR, especially in Noida, Greater Noida and Gurugram. They allege that they were being forced by banks to pay instalments despite not having possession of flats.

The bench had ordered CBI probes into “unholy nexus” banks and builders to allegedly dupe homebuyers through subvention schemes.

Under the subvention scheme, banks disburse the sanctioned amount directly to the accounts of builders, who are then required to pay EMIs on the sanctioned loan amount until flats are handed over to homebuyers.

After builders started defaulting on EMIs to banks, in line with the tripartite agreement, banks demanded the EMIs from homebuyers – the third party in the agreement.

The bench observed that if this remains the approach of the CBI, then it may set up a committee to oversee the investigation by the agency.

The top court said that if the CBI is facing staff shortage to probe the cases, it can write to state DGPs and take the help of their Economic Offence Wings.

While expressing displeasure that bank officials were not being investigated by the CBI, the bench asked a “responsible officer” from the CBI to file an affidavit by next date of hearing on the pace of probe in all the cases.

It said that CBI should consult a report filed in the matter by amicus curiae Rajiv Jain on April 29, last year, and directed the agency to indicate a probable timeline for the completion of the probe.