NOIDA: The Allahabad High Court has reinstated a farmhouse plot valued at over Rs 100 crore to a firm, overturning a cancellation order issued nine years ago, effective immediately.
A division bench comprising Justices Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Kunal Ravi Singh ruled on Thursday to restore the 3.8 lakh sqm plot in Greater Noida to SDS Infratech, reversing the Greater Noida Authority’s 2017 cancellation order and instructing it to address the developer’s zero-period relief request within four months.
The bench partially granted the writ petition, annulling the August 17, 2017 order that rescinded the April 25, 2011 plot allotment.
This dispute originated from GNIDA’s 2011 institutional farmhouse scheme, covering land in Etwa, Patwari, Bisrakh, and Haibatpur villages. A consortium led by SDS Infratech was assigned the land for Rs 103 crore, with Rs 20.6 crore (about 20% of the premium) already deposited, which, as per the scheme brochure, required the Authority to issue a checklist for the lease deed execution.
GNIDA terminated the allotment, claiming the developer was a habitual defaulter for not meeting payment deadlines. They asserted that as of April 30, 2017, the outstanding dues, including interest, had exceeded Rs 204 crore. The Authority maintained that the payment obligations were separate as per the brochure and that only around 6,831 sqm of the land was situated in Patwari village, arguing that ongoing acquisition-related litigation could not justify non-payments.
Conversely, the developer argued that the land acquisition in Patwari was annulled by the High Court on July 19, 2011, and remained subject to legal challenges for several years—confirmed by the full bench ruling in Gajraj on October 21, 2011, and the Supreme Court’s ruling in Savitri Devi on May 14, 2015, with related proceedings continuing until October 2016.
The company requested a zero-period from July 19, 2011, until the issuance of the checklist, contending that title and possession litigation created uncertainty at least until October 4, 2016. They argued that because the lease deed was never executed and possession was not granted, installment liabilities could not be enforced without reciprocal obligations being met.
The developer had previously filed a writ petition in 2013, challenging GNIDA’s demand for an additional 64.7% compensation and re-approached the High Court in 2017 against a demand of Rs 177 crore. On May 26, 2017, the court instructed GNIDA to resolve the zero-period claim through a reasoned order, placing the demand on hold. Despite this, GNIDA canceled the allotment in 2017, after which the High Court granted interim protection subject to a Rs 5 crore deposit.
In its final directives, the court ordered GNIDA to present the zero-period claim to its standing committee within four weeks of receiving a certified copy of the judgment.
