NOIDA: The Allahabad high court has issued a contempt notice against the CEO of Noida Authority for failing to register around 300 flats in Lotus 300 in Sector 107. The court rejected the Authority’s petition to review its earlier order to register the flats without insisting on dues that the developer was yet to clear.
In its review petition, the Noida Authority said it could not register the flats because the developer was yet to pay Rs 166 crore. On Feb 29 this year, a division bench of Justices Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Prashant Kumar had asked the Authority to execute registries for 300 occupied flats within a month and ordered an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against all the promoters for allegedly defrauding homebuyers, the Authority and banks by diverting money for personal gain.
On May 16, the division bench rejected the Authority’s appeal to review the earlier order on registry of flats.
“It is clearly reflected from the order that has been so passed by this court that each and every facet of the matter that has been raised has been examined by this court and in the garb of a review application, rehearing cannot be permitted. Consequently, in the facts of the case, the review application has no merit and the same is dismissed, accordingly,” it said.
A week later on May 23, the same bench rejected another petition by a former promoter, Vidhur Bhardwaj, seeking a review of the Feb order directing an ED probe against the developers.
The court observed that a review is permissible only when there is “an error apparent on the face of the record, i.e., the error should be grave and palpable, and it must be such that it would be apparent on merely looking at the record, without requiring any long-drawn process of reasoning or reappraisal of the entire evidence to find the error, as that would amount to exercising appellate jurisdiction”.
On May 27, a single bench of Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal accepted a plea by Lotus homebuyers that a contempt notice be issued against Noida Authority for failing to execute registries within a month. The high court issued a contempt notice against Lokesh M, the Authority CEO.
Lotus 300 has 330 flats in total, of which 300 are occupied.
Bhuwan Chaturvedi, the AOA president, alleged that the Authority had done “gross contempt” by not registering the flats despite several reminders. Since 2022, the project is being managed by an IRP after the National Company Law Tribunal admitted an application by IndusInd Bank and ordered corporate insolvency resolution proceedings. In its Feb 29 order, the division bench had stated that the Authority should put up all its claims before the IRP, but continue with the registries.
