Heartbreak City

Angry buyers of stalled Sector-107 projects protest inaction of builders & Noida Authority; demand houses or money back with interest

Even as a trial court blasted Delhi Police for shoddy probe in Rs 500cr Unitech case involving a Sector-70 Gurgaon project, over 500 buyers of five different stalled residential projects in Noida’s Sector-107 demanded their houses or full money back with interest. While Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Rao observed that this was yet another case where "the builder lobby has taken hundreds of innocent investors for a ride," the Noida buyers said they needed clarity on the issue. 

The projects came to a standstill following a Supreme Court order in 2013 quashing acquisition of a 225-hectare land in Salarpur village in Sector 107. The five projects have close to 5,000 flats, which were mostly sold in 2010-11. The buyers protested the “inaction of builders and the Noida Authority in solving the issue for the past two years.” The general secretary of the Sector 107 Home Buyers Association, Sanjeev Priyadarshi, demanded clarity on the issue from the Authority saying the buyers are clueless while they still pay EMIs every month. "Nobody thinks of the buyers' plight when such decisions are taken,” said Puneet Parashar, a homebuyer. “When the apex court passed the order in 2013, most projects were close to completion. The buyers had already paid anything between 75-90% of the flat costs. For the past one year the projects have seen no progress and the buildings are eventually getting damaged." The Noida Authority had acquired the 225-hectare land in 2008-2009 under the urgency clause of the erstwhile Land Acquisition Act, which was challenged by the farmers first in the Allahabad High Court and later in Supreme Court. 

The apex court in its August 5, 2013 order quashed the land acquisition besides cancelling the entire notification of Sallarpur village. But the construction continued in full swing despite the order. The builders then filed a review petition against the order in the Supreme Court, where a the bench of Justice Teerth Singh Thakur and Justice V. Gopala Gowda heard the case on August 23, 2015, and sent it back to the Allahabad High Court for review. Gopal Subramaniam, representing the builders, told the Hon’ble Supreme Court instead of 182 acres of land, which is what Rajendra Estate Pvt Ltd has appealed for, the entire stretch of 547 acres was cancelled by annulment of the notification, which was issues under section 4 and 6. 

Also that at the time of the judgment passed on August 5, 2013, the builders as well as the buyers were never represented. To this, Justice Thakur said that since the matter of farmer agitation was always in the news, it was surprising that the builders never tried to find out if there was something wrong with their land. However, Mr Subramaniam argued that there was no way builders could have known the status of litigation. Further Mr Subramaniam argued that the Supreme Court bench has given a faourable judgment for the Authority and builders in the order passed in May 2015. Since Salarpur village was already a part of this case, it was argued that the judgment should be applied and review should be accepted. Justice Thakur repeatedly asked "What is the problem then? Which of the judgment was creating a problem?” It was further informed to him that post the August 2013 judgment, many other farmers who had already taken the compensation, have gone to Allahabad High Court and the cases are under consideration. Finally Justice Thakur took a view that since the matter is already being pursued by Allahabad High Court, it is better that the Authority and builders pursued the matter in High Court. He then adjourned the review petition filed in Supreme Court and directed the Allahabad High Court that they should hear the case expeditiously within the next two months and decide on the matter.