‘Manifestly perverse’: SC orders NGO to pay ₹5L for PIL on Supertech towers

Supertech towers’ demolition: The Supreme Court ruled that once the judgment of this court has attained finality, no petition under Article 32 of the Constitution will be maintainable

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a non-governmental organisation to pay ₹5 lakh for its petition to stop the August 21 demolition of Supertech’s twin towers at Noida, saying the plea was “manifestly perverse”.

The Supreme Court imposed ₹5 lakh cost on an NGO that asked the top court to stall the demolition scheduled for August 21 and put the structure to some use. (HT File Photo/Mohd Zakir)

“The purpose of the petition is to seek a consequence directly contrary to the decision of this Court.” It was on August 31 last year that the top court directed the demolition of the two 32-storey towers, finding it to be illegal and contrary to the National Building Code, 2005,” the bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Sudhanshu Dhulia said.

The petitioner, a non-government organization, Centre for Law and Good Governance, submitted that instead of demolishing the structure, the twin towers could be put to effective use by transferring it for any useful purpose.

The bench did not find favour with this suggestion and questioned how such a petition could be filed.

“The jurisdiction of this court has been invoked seeking an alternative other than demolishing the twin towers. Once the judgment of this court has attained finality, no petition under Article 32 of the Constitution (writ jurisdiction of Supreme Court) will be maintainable,” the bench ruled.

The demolition of the 100-metre high towers has been contracted to a demolition agency Edifice Engineering Limited, which has already carried out test blasts and is expected to bring down the two towers on August 21.

Last week, the court directed Edifice and Supertech to provide all relevant information to the Roorkee-based Central Building Research Institute, which has been brought in as a consultant to guide on the safety and technical aspects of demolition. The matter is being constantly monitored by the top court and the next hearing on the aspect of demolition is fixed for August 12.

The court has ordered Supertech to refund the money paid by homebuyers with 12% interest. Of the 633 people who booked flats in the twin towers, about 248 homebuyers took an early refund while 133 took flats in other Supertech projects, leaving only 252 homebuyers who have since been receiving refunds.