New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered real estate major Supertech to return money to homebuyers by January 17 for flats facing demolition in the 40-storey twin towers in Noida or face jail.
According to LiveLaw report, Justice D Y Chandrachud said while hearing the matter, “We will send your directors to jail now! They are playing truant with the Supreme Court.” “Interest cannot be charged on Return of Investment! You are looking for all sorts of reasons to not comply with the order of the court,” he told the builder’s lawyers.
The Supreme Court has also asked the builder to pay Rs 2 crores to the Resident Welfare Association.
The Supreme Court on August 31, 2021, upheld an order of the Allahabad High Court directing the demolition of twin 40-storey towers of Supertech in Noida for violating building norms.
The SC had ordered that the work of demolition should be carried out by the appellant Supertech within a period of three months at its own cost under the supervision of Noida officials. The demolition shall be overlooked by the Central Building Research Institute to ensure safe demolition.
The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah observed that there was collusion between Noida officials and the developers in facilitating the construction of the building in violation of norms and the complicity of the Noida authorities was "writ large" in the present case.
"The record of the case is replete with instances which shows collusion of Noida authority with the builder...Collusion is writ large in the case. High Court has correctly observed this collusion aspect", Justice Chandrachud read out the excerpts from the judgment.