Allahabad HC orders demolition of 2 towers in Supertech's project

Firm says ruling is one-sided, plans to challenge it

In a blow to realty company Supertech, the Allahabad High Court on Friday ordered the demolition of two 40-storeyed buildings in its project, Emerald Court, on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.

The court said: “It has repeatedly come to notice that builders, with officers of development authorities, flout every rule, including building ones.” A bench comprising V K Shukla and Suneet Kumar  ordered the demolition in four months after getting prior sanction.

The order also said money be refunded to all who had invested “with 14 per cent interest compounded annually”.  

“The time has come when everyone should realise the rule of law is not purchasable and illegalities will not to be tolerated because the builder has taken protection against the sanction which, admittedly, is illegal and in violation of building regulations,” the court said.

“We will immediately challenge this in a higher court. This judgment is totally one-sided. We have taken all approvals before starting the construction,” Chairman R K Arora told Business Standard.

The two towers are under construction and have 200-250 apartments, with prices starting from Rs 1.2 crore. The total investment in the two towers is Rs 400 crore. The project, in Sector 93, has 15 towers. About 700 housing units have been delivered. The total project is of Rs 2,000 crore.

The petition was by the Resident Welfare Association, but Arora said the floor area ratio in these towers was increased only after taking permission from the Noida development authority.

The petitioner had claimed the Noida authority had given permission for raising the height of the two, earlier supposed to have only 24 floors, “without maintaining the mandatory distance of 16 metres from an adjoining building block, making it “unsafe, apart from blocking air and light”.

Through the sanction order of March 2, 2012, of the authority, the towers’ height had been raised from 66 to 121 metres.