GSK gets interim relief in fight against DLF

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has restrained DLF from selling or creating third-party rights in one of its towers located in DLF’s Horizon Centre, earlier known as City Centre, in Gurgaon.

The interim order, issued on September 14, was based on an appeal filed by consumer healthcare major GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). According to GSK, the property developer had violated its agreement with the company by unilaterally scrapping the City Centre project, citing price escalation and re-launching it under a new name with fresh tariff/conditions.

GSK had approached the High Court after a district court in Gurgaon declined to entertain the company’s request. Both GSK and DLF declined to comment on the development as the matter is sub-judice.

The GSK move comes days after anti-competitive practices watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) had come down heavily on real estate players, including DLF for indulging in several industry practices that CCI felt were against customer interest.

According to CCI, there is no fair participatory and transparent mechanism to tackle any substantive and major changes in the project mid-way.

However, the CCI observations were in the context of residential projects by real estate players and was not related to the GSK-DLF litigation.

In the case of GSK, it is known that DLF had returned the advance amount paid by GSK soon after the company decided to scrap the “City Centre” project.