GURUGRAM: A legal battle between two developers over a housing project in the city has ended up before the Delhi high court, leaving the judges with a decision first to make on who should hear it.
On the directions of a court in the capital, Delhi Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) filed an FIR against Godrej Properties and its top management in connection with Godrej Air. The complainant, Orris Infrastructure, claimed in its plea before the court that Godrej Properties was supposed to pay Rs 202 crore for 10 acres of land for the project by Sept 2022 but had so far paid only Rs 37 crore.
The EOW case invokes sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. On May 28, the court of chief metropolitan magistrate (south-west) Dwarka, Rajat Goyal, after hearing the petition filed by Orris, ordered the FIR registered and a compliance report sent to the court. The case was filed the next day.
Godrej Properties subsequently moved Delhi high court to quash the lower court’s order. After hearing both parties, the court of Judge Dinesh Kumar Sharma on June 7 observed, “This court considers that this case falls within the category of rare of rarest case where the documents filed show the jurisdiction of the courts in Gurgaon and learned CMM has passed an order for registration of FIR despite noting that the investigation agency reported that the offence alleged has been committed within the jurisdiction of Gurgaon and the complaint has been sent to Gurgaon”.
The court stayed any coercive action in case till the next hearing, which is scheduled on July 11.
The counsel for Godrej Properties argued that the lower court had passed the order mechanically without having territorial jurisdiction. The counsel for Orris, however, argued that different meetings between both parties had taken place in Delhi, which was within the territorial jurisdiction of the Dwarka court.
A spokesperson for Orris told TOI on Wednesday, “The company had given its 10 acres to Godrej for construction and in turn was to get Rs 200 crore by Sept 2022. Instead of giving money back to Orris, the builder siphoned off the money and bought a parcel of land of 14 acres adjacent to the project. In this case, an FIR was registered against Godrej.”
A spokesperson for Godrej Properties accused Orris of trying to cause reputational damage to it. “This is an attempt by Orris to damage the reputation of Godrej Properties by repeating allegations that have already been investigated by relevant agencies and found to be baseless. Upon learning of this action, we have immediately taken appropriate legal recourse and the Delhi High Court, based on complete facts placed by us, has passed an order granting stay. Accordingly, the matter is now sub-judice. We are fully confident of our bona fides, look forward to having these claims rejected once again, and to taking suitable legal action to prevent the recurrence of such defamatory and criminal claims in future,” the spokesperson said on Wednesday.
