The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a one-man judicial committee to examine the scope of partially restoring cancelled lease deeds to a Greater Noida housing society, which has been stalled for over two decades. In this case, homebuyers, who were cheated by the builder, took the bold step to complete the construction of their units.
The court directed the committee headed by former Allahabad high court judge Pankaj Naqvi to identify genuine allottees of the 140-flat Shiv Kala Charms society, whose lease deed was cancelled by the Greater Noida authority on September 9, 2011, over non-payment of dues.
With 70 allottees of two residential towers pooling in resources to begin construction, the authority told the court that the biggest hurdle in their way to carry on with the construction was the cancelled lease deed, which cannot be revived for only two towers. The allottees for the remaining two residential towers failed to turn up in court and the authority maintained that the lease can only be restored in full, subject to payment of all pending dues.
Faced with this predicament, the bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said, “The overlapping issues of restoration of lease, identification of genuine allottees, proportional determination of land dues, and feasibility of completing the stalled construction necessitate a comprehensive, structured, and impartial examination under the supervision of an independent fact-finding authority.”
The court asked the state authorities to set up the committee headed by justice Naqvi with office space, secretarial staff, legal assistant, by November 21 and directed the committee to submit a report within four months, and at best before March 24, 2026, when the case will be heard next.
Writing the judgment for the bench, justice Mehta said, “While it is imperative to ensure some measure of relief to the genuine allottees, it is equally important to guard against any fraudster or imposter staking a false claim on the legitimate entitlement of the genuine allottees, thereby, taking undue advantage of the prevailing uncertainty.”
The society was formed in 2004 under the banner of JP Greens Employees Awas Samiti and was allotted land in September that year. Shiv Kala Developers was allotted the construction work and in 2005, the Greater Noida authority approved the layout for the construction of 140 flats having two, three and four-bedroom dwelling units.
The housing cooperative, registered under the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Societies Act, was allotted Plot No. 7, Sector Pi-2, Greater Noida, measuring 10,000 square metres, by the Greater Noida authority in 2004 for the development of a flat-based residential project.
In 2012, the allottees filed a criminal case alleging siphoning of funds by some of the society office-bearers in collusion with the builders. As the lease deed was cancelled in September 2011, and homebuyers were left high and dry, some of the allottees approached the Allahabad High Court, but on being refused relief, moved the top court.
The court directed the UP Awas Evam Vikas Samiti along with the Greater Noida authority, to publish advertisements in prominent Hindi and English dailies announcing the committee and the purpose of its formation.
The committee was subsequently tasked with identifying the genuine allottees, preparing a list of such allottees willing to join together for the completion of the project, and to consult the Greater Noida authority for a solution for partial restoration of the lease deed. The committee was further required to devise a fair formula for calculating the financial liability of each allottee and to present a comprehensive plan for the development and completion of the residential towers in a time-bound manner.
In the event the allottees remain unverified or unavailable, the committee was allowed to explore the auctioning of the remaining towers to make the completion of the project viable by raising payment towards construction and the discharge of all land dues payable to the authority.
The court fixed an honorarium of ₹15 lakh for the former judge to be borne by the state and allottees, along with all other expenses to the committee is to incur.
The bench said, “The facts and circumstances would clearly indicate that the original allottees who dreamt of a roof over their heads have been struggling in a losing cause for the last nearly 20 years. It is apparent that the petitioners/applicants/allottees have endured immense hardship for all this time, apart from losing their hard-earned money, and have been embroiled in an administrative logjam and prolonged litigation.”
The court said that such an “unsavoury state of affairs” cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely and decided to form the committee to undertake a detailed inquiry into the entire factual matrix and give suggestions for a suitable resolution.