DLF to approach apex court against order to demolish Gurgaon SEZ

Realty major DLF has decided to approach the Supreme Court against a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict ordering demolition of the special economic zone (SEZ) in Gurgaon that houses several large information technology firms.

Last week the high court had observed that the land was acquired by the state government for some other purpose and not for a SEZ and subsequently ordered that construction on some parts of the land be demolished.

The Haryana government had acquired 37 acres in Silokhera village for developing the land for residential and commercial areas, of which 30 acres was given to East India Hotels Limited — the plan was to build a hospital, hotel management institute and executive apartments.

However, EIH had handed over the land to DLF after obtaining a ‘no-objection certificate’ from the state government. “We are unable to offer any comments. In any event, the company will file an appeal before the Supreme Court, if aggrieved,” Sanjey Roy, vice president, corporate communications of DLF told Business Standard.

This is an operational SEZ and houses some big names such as Accenture, Genpact, IBM and Max New York Life which employ several people. DLF was planning to relocate the companies in some of its other offices in Gurgaon, sources in the industry said.

The high court has also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on the companies to be deposited with the Legal Services Committee. The division bench of Justice Jasbir Singh and RK Garg have said that if the fine was not paid, the committee could initiate recovery proceedings.

In January 1989, the state government had issued a notification under Section IV of the Land Acquisition Act, to acquire 210.38 acres in Silokhera village and 5.2 acres in Sukhrali. In January 1990, the government under Section VI of the Act issued a notification in which 169 acres in Silokhera and 2.13 acres in Sukhrali village were acquired.

The state government had then released 30 acres of the acquired land in favour of EIH Ltd in 1995. According to the judgment, the land was “illegally” sold by EIH Ltd to DLF Ltd and Chandra Jyoti Developers Pvt Ltd.