NOIDA: The Uttar Pradesh industrial development department has upheld the Noida Authority’s decision to revoke the land allotment of 29 industrial allottees due to failure to initiate construction, despite several extensions and relaxations from the state government.
On October 23, additional chief secretary (industrial development) Alok Kumar dismissed a revision petition from Elevator IT Solutions Ltd, which contested the Noida cancellation order from July 10, 2023, deeming it arbitrary and inconsistent with lease terms.
The dispute arose over a 4,130 sqm plot in Sector 62, originally allocated for IT/ITES activities in 2008. According to the lease deed executed on August 5, 2008, the allottee was required to complete the construction within five years, by August 26, 2013. No construction occurred in this timeframe. Following a change in constitution (CIC) in 2016, the plot was transferred to Elevator IT Solutions, which was granted an additional four years until August 26, 2017, to conclude the construction. However, the company failed to start construction even by this new deadline.
In July 2020, the state government introduced an ordinance (later enacted as the UP Industrial Area Development (Amendment) Act, 2022) mandating that allottees holding plots for over eight years without completion certificates must finish construction by December 31, 2022, failing which allotments would be canceled. Following this, the NOIDA Authority notified the company on June 18, 2021, to make the unit operational by the stipulated date, warning that non-compliance would lead to automatic lease cancellation as per the Act. Despite this, the company did not commence construction or respond to the notice, leading the Authority to cancel the allotment and forfeit the deposited amount.
During the hearing on October 23, the company’s counsel argued that Clause 11(b) of the lease deed did not provide for automatic revocation, thus contending that the cancellation was outside the lease’s legal framework. The revisionist also claimed that other similar allottees received extensions until December 2024 from the state government, asserting that the denial of such leniency constituted a violation of Article 14 (Right to Equality) of the Constitution. They further claimed that the cancellation occurred without proper notice under Section 7(d) of the ordinance.
The Authority rejected these allegations, confirming that due process was observed, and emphasized that the June 2021 notice was properly served, informing the company about the repercussions of non-compliance. Officials noted that after the government’s order, some plots belonging to several of the 29 allottees were reinstated.
