The Allahabad High Court has ordered the demolition of two towers, and two floors each of four other towers at the Gulmohar Greens residential society in Ghaziabad, and directed the registration of an FIR against the promoter of the project for allegedly committing fraud and violating the Uttar Pradesh Apartment Act, 2010.
The constructions were undertaken by Friends Land Developers Pvt Ltd, a partnership firm of SVP Builders India Ltd. In the order, the court also permitted the authority to recover the demolition expenses from the promoter as arrears of land revenue. Holding that the promoter had misrepresented facts and defrauded apartment owners by selling common areas, the court directed the concerned police station to register an FIR for fraud, misrepresentation and violations of the UP Apartment Act within two weeks of the judgment.
The court also ordered a disciplinary inquiry against a former vice-chairperson of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) for approving an illegal compounding of the building plans, and directed the promoter to pay ₹ 25 lakh to the society’s residents’ welfare association (RWA). The high court further ordered GDA to pay ₹ 50,000 to each petitioner, holding that residents had been harassed by the promoter in alleged collusion with the development authority. The court directed GDA to demolish towers 27 and 28, each comprising five floors with eight units on every floor, and the ninth and 10th floors of towers 16, 17, 18 and 19 within two months. The court set aside the third compounding order, dated December 18, 2024, holding that the deviations were not eligible for regularisation. “We have already, on the basis of many grounds urged before us, held the third compounding dated December 18, 2024 illegal.
Therefore, we hold the third compounding dated December 18, 2024 cannot be sustained and is, accordingly, set aside,” the court said, directing GDA to complete the demolition within two months of the judgment.
It said the former GDA vice-chairperson had approved the compounding despite the promoter’s violations. “Accordingly, we direct the concerned police station to register an FIR against the promoter for committing the offence of fraud, misrepresentation, and violating the provisions of the (UP Apartment) Act, 2010 with impunity within two weeks from the date of the judgement.”
