The Supreme Court has slapped a fine of Rs. 105 Crore on a Pune-based real estate company- Goel Ganga Developers for causing damage to the environment and building residential towers, and for thereby violating the law. The Court, however, refused to order demolition of the buildings since the homebuyers were already given possession of the flats. This judgment was given in the case of M/S. GOEL GANGA DEVELOPERS INDIA PVT. LTD V. UNION OF INDIA THROUGH SECRETARY MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS & ORS.[CIVIL APPEAL NO. 10854 OF 2016] by Justice Deepak Gupta.
Six months time has been granted by the SC bench to the Company, for depositing the money before its registry. All assets of the Company along with its directors’ assets will be attached if it fails to comply with the order.
The Company had expanded the built-up area without any permission, and the construction done by it was also in violation of the environmental clearance that was given to the project. 738 flats and 115 shops were built by the Company at Bhagyodaya, Amrut Ganga and Ganga Towers projects on Sinhagad road in Pune. The construction of 2 shops and around 69 flats were in the final stages. It was noted by the Court that the approval given to the company for construction of the built-up area was for 57,658.42 sq meters, but the Company, in complete violation of the law, had expanded the built-up area to 1,00,002.25 sq meters.
The Court, however, had to legalise the construction after it observed the fact that most of the homebuyers in the projects belonged to middle-class families, and if the buildings were demolished, they would suffer huge monetary losses.
The Order given by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) was upheld by the Apex Court. The order concluded that the developer had violated the law and fine was imposed on the developer. It was also held by in NGT’s order that the company shall not be allowed to build the 2 buildings in which it had to construct 454 flats and was directed to give back the money with interest @ 9% per annum to the buyers.[embeddoc url=”https://www.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2016/37233/37233_2016_Judgement_10-Aug-2018.pdf”]