'You are in cahoots with them’: Supreme Court roasts Noida Authority over Supertech towers

The two-judge bench, which heard the Noida Authority blamehome buyers for complaining too late, told the authority that it should, as a public authority, take a neutral stand.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday chided the Noida Authority for its “shocking exercise of power” in sanctioning two residential towers of real estate developer Supertech on a green area, and then blocking right to information requests from homebuyers about the building plans.

The bench also reserved its verdict on appeals by Supertech and Noida authority against the Allahabad high court verdict on April 11, 2014. (HT File Photo/Sunil Ghosh)

The two-judge bench, which heard the Noida Authority blamehome buyers for complaining too late, told the authority that it should, as a public authority, take a neutral stand.

“From the way you are arguing it appears that you are the promoter. You cannot be fighting against the homebuyers. As a public authority, you have to take a neutral stand. Your conduct reeks of corruption from the eyes, ears and nose and you are trying to find fault with the homebuyers,” the bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and MR Shah said.

The bench also reserved its verdict on appeals by Supertech and Noida authority against the Allahabad high court verdict on April 11, 2014, to demolish two towers, Apex and Ceyane, constructed as part of realty major Supertech’s Emerald Court project.

The high court, which sought prosecution of officers concerned for collusion with the developer, ordered the demolition in 2014 because the two towers were built too close to each other and violated the Noida Building Regulations of 2010 that requires the minimum distance to be 16 metres. Further, the high court noted that the developer hadn’t taken the consent of homebuyers as required under the Uttar Pradesh Apartment Owners Act, 2010.

During arguments on the appeals on Wednesday, the bench noted how the authority helped the developer.

“It’s a shocking exercise of power by the Noida Authority. When flat purchasers asked you to reveal the building plans for the two towers, Apex and Ceyane, you wrote to Supertech and refused to part with it after the company objected. Only after the Allahabad high court order, you provided it. It is not that you are in league with Supertech, you are in cahoots with them,” said the bench.

In defence, lawyer Ravindra Kumar who represented Noida Authority, said the homebuyers did not complain when Supertech was increasing flats and floors in this project with each successive building plan. Supertech’s original building plan of June 2005 provided 550 flats and 14 towers. This was increased to 689 flats in the revised plan in December 2006. The Apex and Ceyane towers with 24 floors came in the third revised plan of November 2009. And in the final plan of March 2012, these two towers were increased from 24 to 40 storeys.

Kumar said: “Between the second and fourth plan, the number of proposed flats were increased from 689 to 1,573. So it was not that the original plan was sacrosanct. This was never challenged by the homebuyers.”

The real estate firm, too, blamed homebuyers.“The homebuyers did not go to the high court in 2009 but only after 2012. What were they doing for three years, negotiating?” asked senior lawyer Vikas Singh who represented Supertech.

Supertech cited other housing projects in Noida which had a distance of six to nine metres between towers while in case of the company’s twin towers, the distance between the towers is 9.88 metres or 32 feet. Singh said it is the discretion of the builder to create a building block by keeping the buildings adjacent to each other or separate so long as the FAR (floor area ratio) permits.

The two towers facing demolition have 915 flats of which 633 were booked. Of them, only 252 flat buyers still remain as 133 homebuyers have re-invested in other Supertech projects while 248 have taken a refund.

The Emerald Court Owners Resident Welfare Association, which secured relief from the high court in 2014, attributed the delay cited by the real estate firm and the authority to their attempts to collect information.

Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for the homebuyers, said that, since 2009, residents were seeking information about the two under-construction towers that were coming up in the green area shown to us while purchasing flats. “I applied under the Right to Information law for the building plan from Noida authority which they refused. That is when I decided to approach the high court.”