SC denies Supertech plea seeking modification of order to raze twin towers

The Supreme Court Monday dismissed an application moved by Supertech Ltd seeking modification of direction to raze the realty firm's twin 40-storey towers in Noida and allowing it to only partially demolish 224 flats of one tower along with its community area on the ground floor to conform with the building norms.

The apex court said that grant of such a relief is in the nature of a review of the judgement of this court and in various decisions.

The filing of applications styled as miscellaneous applications' or applications for clarifications in the guise for review cannot be countenanced, it emphasised.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and B V Nagarathna said that there is no substance in the application filed by Supertech Ltd and hence it is dismissed.

The attempt in the miscellaneous applications is clearly to seek substantive modification of the judgement of this court. Such an attempt is not permissible in the miscellaneous applications, the bench said.

In its application, Supertech Ltd has said that due to the proximity of Tower-17 (Ceyane) with the other residential towers in its Emerald Court project, it cannot demolish the building by blowing through explosives and it would have to be done brick by brick.

The underlying basis of the proposed modifications is that if the same are allowed, it would save crores of resources from going to waste inasmuch as the applicant has already put materials worth crores of rupees in the construction of the Towers T-16 (Apex) and T-17 (Ceyane), the company has said, while clarifying that it was not seeking review of August 31 order.

On August 31, the top court had ordered the demolition of Supertech Ltd's twin 40-storey towers under construction within three months for violation of building norms in "collusion with NOIDA officials, holding that illegal construction has to be dealt with strictly to ensure compliance with the rule of law.

The Noida authority had received a rap on its knuckles as the top court pointed out multiple incidents of collusion of its officials with the Supertech Ltd in the Emerald Court project and violations of norms by the realty major in construction of the twin towers.

The top court had directed that the entire amount of home buyers be refunded with 12 per cent interest from the time of the booking and the RWA of Emerald Court project be paid Rs 2 crore for the harassment caused due to the construction of the twin towers, which would have blocked sunlight and fresh air to the existing residents of the housing project adjoining the national capital.

The top court noted that the two towers together have 915 apartments and 21 shops.

According to Supertech data given to the court earlier, of the 633 people who booked the flats initially, 133 have moved out to other projects, 248 have taken refunds and 252 home buyers still have bookings with the company in the project.