NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has annulled a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that mandated a CBI investigation into the alleged illegal conversion of residential land for the construction of the Ambience Mall in Gurugram, Haryana.
Claims were made that 18.98 acres of land on the Delhi-Jaipur national highway, designated for the Ambience Lagoon Island Residential Complex, was reduced to 7.9 acres, with a commercial complex taking over the remaining land.
The top court deemed the high court’s directive for the CBI to file an FIR as unnecessary, stating it was based on unverified and inconclusive evidence. Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Sandeep Mehta mentioned that the July 10, 2020 judgment from the high court is neither factually nor legally sustainable.
However, the apex court clarified that ongoing proceedings on related matters before the high court would remain unaffected by this ruling.
“We firmly believe that the High Court operated under a mistaken assumption, thinking it was necessary to develop the entire 18.98 acres rather than just 10.98 acres. This conclusion is inherently flawed in light of the contract and the approved layout plan,” the bench stated.
The CBI had filed an FIR and reported under Section 173(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, asserting that the de-licensing of 8 acres of land was lawful.
It is undisputed that construction on the Ambience Mall/Ambience Commercial Tower-I, covering 8 acres, and the Leela Ambience Hotel, occupying 4 acres, began in 2002 and was completed by 2007-2008.
“Flats in Ambience Lagoon Residential Colony were occupied early in this period, so residents cannot claim ignorance of the ongoing construction in the vicinity,” the bench noted. “The prolonged inaction from the flat owners regarding alleged violations over almost a decade raises serious doubts about the sincerity of the writ petitioners.”
The current writ petition was submitted in 2015, approximately eight years after the construction of the Ambience Mall and Leela Ambience Hotel, which were already operational.
“Given this context, the significant delay in approaching the High Court should have precluded the writ petitioners from receiving any discretionary relief under Article 226 of the Constitution,” the court observed, stating that the High Court had overlooked this crucial aspect, fundamental to the case.
The apex court also suspended a National Green Tribunal order that imposed a ₹10 crore environmental penalty on the developer for alleged construction activities in a designated green area.
Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Abhishek Manu Singhvi represented Ambience group’s CMD Raj Singh Gehlot and the group itself in the matter.
The CBI had previously charged Gehlot along with Ambience Ltd and Ambience Developers and Infrastructure, as well as unidentified officials from the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and the Town and Country Planning Department, regarding alleged illegal construction activities on approximately 18.98 acres in Gurugram, claiming flagrant violations of building by-laws and statutory provisions in collusion with others.
The Ambience group operates several properties, including Ambience Malls in NCR and The Leela Ambience Convention Centre.
The petitioners claimed that the 18.98-acre land allocated for the Ambience Lagoon Island Residential Complex was reduced to 7.9 acres, with a commercial complex constructed on the remainder, alleging that such violations of the builder-buyer agreement and the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act, 1975 could not have occurred without collusion between officials and builders.
