HC attaches personal assets of builder, stops sale of flats in Lotus Espacia

The Gautam Budh Nagar administration, on July 25, arrested the promoter of Cloud-9 projects private limited, Ashish Gupta, for failing to pay ₹66 crore land dues to Noida authority. The Dadri tehsil officials, along with the police, arrested Gupta from his Sector 127 office.

Ordering the release of the builder from the tehsil lock-up, the Allahabad high court on Wednesday directed the sub-registrars of Meerut, Panipat, Gautam Budh Nagar, and Ghaziabad not to execute the transfer deed of any property owned by developer Ashish Gupta, who is one of the directors of Cloud-9 projects private limited. According to officials, the company has defaulted on a payment of ₹66 crore against a plot of housing land allotted by the Noida authority in Sector 100.

The bench of Allahabad high court judges Pankaj Mithal and Saral Srivastava gave a ‘landmark’ judgment that could help the administration recover land dues from other builders as well, officials said. (PTI)

The Gautam Budh Nagar administration, on July 25, arrested the promoter of Cloud-9 projects private limited, Ashish Gupta, for failing to pay ₹66 crore land dues to Noida authority. The Dadri tehsil officials, along with the police, arrested Gupta from his Sector 127 office. He has been kept in custody in a lock-up at the Dadri tehsil office since then. Gupta had filed a petition in the Allahabad high court, challenging his arrest.

The bench of Allahabad high court judges Pankaj Mithal and Saral Srivastava gave a ‘landmark’ judgment that could help the administration recover land dues from other builders as well, officials said.

In a detailed order, the high court stated, “That on release from civil imprisonment, he (Ashish Gupta) shall not move out of the country without the leave of the Court. That he will not deal with his shares which he is having in the company M/s Cloud Nine Project Pvt. Ltd. And any company that is a member of the consortium. His two residential houses situated in Meerut and the land which he possesses in Panipat (particulars of which shall be supplied by the counsel for the petitioner) shall be under attachment and he is restrained with dealing with those properties in any manner and would not transfer them.”

Dadri Tehsil sub-divisional magistrate Rajeev Rai said that they had released Gupta in compliance with the HC order.

“This HC judgement is a landmark in many ways as it will help us in recovering the default amount. It has also directed that details of the properties of other directors should also be submitted in the court for further action. The HC order has justified the arrest and action related to recovery,” Rai said.

The builder was unavailable for comments on this issue.

Noida authority had issued a recovery notice to the realty firm Cloud-9, the developer of Lotus Boulevard Espacia housing project in Sector 100 after it did not pay up land dues despite repeated notices. The Cloud-9 projects private limited had started developing the housing project in 2010 with a promise of delivery of flats in 2013-14. It has constructed around 500 flats in the housing project.

“Of 500 homebuyers, around 300 have got their flats registered and the builder has transferred the property titles to their respective names. The remaining 200 buyers are suffering as they are unable to register their flats because the builder has not cleared the dues worth ₹66 crore,” Noida authority officials said.