Twin Tower demolition: Supreme Court rejects Supertech plea to confine demolition to one tower

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea by real estate company, Supertech Limited seeking modification of the top court's August 31 judgment by which the Court had directed the demolition of the 40-storey twin tower building of Supertech's Emerald Court project at Noida (Supertech Ltd. v Emerald Court Owner Resident Welfare Association)..In its application before the apex court, Supertech had prayed that the judgment be modified such that only one of the two towers be demolished while the other is kept in tact.The Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna held the plea amounted to a review petition in the guise of a miscellaneous application. "The judgment of this court had specifically affirmed the judgment of the Allahabad High Court for the demolition of towers T16 and T17. In essence what is sought is the retention of T16, the grant of such relief is in the nature of review petition," the top court said dismissing the plea.Supertech had moved the modification plea contending that demolition of one of the towers, T17 will ensure compliance with minimum distance requirements from another tower, T1 and will also bring it in line with the national building code.T16 can be kept intact since it is already at a distance of 43 metres from T1 and is not illegal, it was submitted.The developer further submitted that it will establish a green zone at the demolished site of T17 and allocate flats to all those in T16 who have still not withdrawn their allocations..The Bench, however, said that the plea is not maintainable."It is like seeking implementation of the verdict on your own terms," said Justice Nagarathna. "The judgment is based not just not on minimum distance requirements. It is on other aspects (too)," said Justice Chandrachud before eventually dismissing the plea.Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for Supertech while Senior Advocate Jayant Bhushan represented the Emerald Court Owner Resident Welfare Association. .A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah had in its August 31 judgment, ordered that the demolition of the twin towers should be completed within three months and the builder has to bear the expenses for the same.Importantly, the Court had ordered that all the flat owners in the twin towers should be reimbursed with 12 per cent interest.Pertinently, the top court also upheld the High Court direction to sanction prosecution of officials of New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) for colluding with the builder to violate Uttar Pradesh Industrial Area Development Act 1976 and UP Apartments Act 2010.The order was passed after the Court concluded that the sanction given by NOIDA in November 2009 for the twin towers was violative of minimum distance requirements and national building code.The Court said that the case is replete with instances of collusion between NOIDA and the builder and illegal construction of twin towers was achieved by such collusion..[Read Order]