The apex court had on August 17 last year directed the

embattled real estate firm to deposit Rs 15 crore principal amount by September-end to pay back investors and home buyers who were not given possession of the flats on time.

The investors had told the court that they had paid money to the firm on time and the company was scheduled to hand over possession of the flats in 2012 but had not till date.

Over two dozen home buyers of Unitech's housing projects in Noida and Gurugram had approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) after the builder failed to give them possession of the flats as the per schedule.

The consumer forum had asked Unitech to refund the money to the home buyers with interest.

The apex court in another matter had earlier asked the company to deposit an interim penalty of Rs 5 crore with the court registry after the firm challenged the order of the consumer forum asking it to pay Rs 5 crore penalty to three buyers of its Burgundy project.

The court had said the penalty deposited with the court will be awarded to the buyers or returned to Unitech, depending on the outcome of the case.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)