Supreme Court slaps NOIDA for corruption and being in cahoots with real estate giants like Supertech

NOIDA and Supertech the realtor hammered by Supreme Court

August 5, 2021

Supreme Court slams Noida authority over Supertech project

India’s prime industrial and housing area authority NOIDA (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority) in Uttar Pradesh’s Delhi border on Wednesday got a severe slap from the Supreme Court for failing to provide sanctioned plan to the Supertech’s Emerald Court project home buyers saying, “you (the authority) are reeking with corruption right from your eyes and nose”. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah, which reserved verdict on the appeal of Supertech against the Allahabad High Court order directing demolition of twin 40-story towers, said that when homebuyers asked for the plan, the authority wrote to the developer on whether to share it and refused to give the plan to them at its behest.

“This is a shocking exercise of power. You (NOIDA) are not only in the league but in cahoots with the Supertech. When homebuyers asked for a sanctioned plan, you wrote to Supertech whether you should give the document or not, and in denial, you refused to give them the plan. It was only after the High Court expressly directed you to give that you had given them. You are reeking with corruption from eyes, nose and on the face of it,” the bench said. During the day-long hearing, the top court also asked the NOIDA that being a regulatory urban planning authority, it should take a neutral stand.

CAG audit was allowed in 2018 during Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s regime. The Chief Minister in February 2020 said that the CAG Report shows more than Rs.30,000 crore scam in NOIDA land allotments during the past 10 years.

New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) started in the mid-70s under the patronage of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s son Sanjay Gandhi is the hub of many Industrial houses, media houses, and 1000s of real estate projects and controversies were always due to the non-transparent land allotment system. Many VIPs from bureaucracy, media were allotted lands by NOIDA. PGurus in September 2016 reported how audits on NOIDA land allotments by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) are stonewalled by UP Government for the past 30 years.[1]

CAG audit was allowed in 2018 during Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath‘s regime. The Chief Minister in February 2020 said that the CAG Report shows more than Rs.30,000 crore scam in NOIDA land allotments during the past 10 years. As many media houses and their barons benefitted from land allotments, the news was always hushed up. Moreover, due to heavy advertisements from real estate giants, media houses looked another way. Basically, land allotment scam happened during BSP and SP regimes in UP, which ruled the biggest State for more than two decades.[2]

“Being an authority, you should take a neutral stand instead of defending the acts of Supertech. You cannot take a private stand for any promoter,” the bench told advocate Ravindra Kumar, appearing for NOIDA. Kumar drew the flak from the court when he tried to justify the construction of the twin 40-story towers in the project saying it was done as per the plan approved by the authority. The bench remarked that how NOIDA, in its “eternal wisdom,” allowed a 40-story tower to come up in the green area. Kumar said it was not green land as alleged by home buyers as a concrete structure was shown in the 2006 sanctioned plan where these towers have come up. In 2014, the High Court has ordered the demolition of towers for violating building codes.

References:

[1] UP Government stonewalling CAG’s move to audit land allotments in Noida – Sep 16, 2016, PGurus.com

[2] CAG has revealed Rs 30,000 crore scam in Noida: Yogi Adityanath – Feb 27, 2020, HT

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