The Supreme Court said illegal construction has to be dealt with strictly to ensure compliance with the rule of law.
Supreme Court of India (Photo SNS)
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an application by Supertech Ltd seeking modification of an order for razing to ground the twin 40-storey towers in Noida, saying the plea in the guise for a review cannot be countenanced.
The builder firm has sought the top court’s permission to only partially demolish 224 flats of one tower along with its community area on the ground floor to conform with the building norms.
The apex court said that the grant of such relief is in the nature of a review of the judgement of this court and in various decisions. “The filing of applications styled as miscellaneous applications’ or applications for clarifications in the guise for review cannot be countenanced,” it said.
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Dismissing the application, a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and B V Nagarathna said that there is no substance in the application filed by Supertech Ltd. “The attempt in the miscellaneous applications is clearly to seek a substantive modification of the judgement of this court. Such an attempt is not permissible in the miscellaneous applications,” it said.
In its application, Supertech Ltd has said that due to the proximity of Tower-17 (Ceyane) with the other residential towers in its Emerald Court project, it cannot demolish the building by blowing through explosives and it would have to be done brick by brick.
The modification, if allowed, would save crores of resources from going to waste in as much as the applicant has already put materials worth crores of rupees in the construction of the Towers T-16 (Apex) and T-17 (Ceyane), the plea said.
The company clarified that it was not seeking a review of the August 31 order.
On August 31, the top court had ordered the demolition of Supertech Ltd’s twin 40-storey towers under construction within three months for violation of building norms in “collusion with NOIDA officials.
Illegal construction, the top court said, has to be dealt with strictly to ensure compliance with the rule of law.
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