HC to DDA: Expedite certificates to flat owners in C'wealth Village

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was on Thursday directed by the Delhi High Court to expedite the process of issuing completion certificates to the flats in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) village on the flat owners'plea to give them possession.

Justice Hima Kohli directed the DDA to expedite the process to the flats housed in 30 towers at the earliest and keep four towers separately in the village.

The court also made it clear that the compounding charges have to be calculated on the basis of Master Plan 2021 and Building byelaws and also no contractual demand should come in the way of issuing the certificate.

Taking a serious view that the agency was discriminating in issuing certificates to the flats and choosing towers arbitrarily for itself, the court directed the land owning agency to keep four towers 5 and 15 (Emaar MGF share) and 26 and 29 (DDA's own share) out of total 34 towers to allot them to flat buyers in case some flats were demolished due to violation of building bylaws.

The court passed the order after DDA's Standing Counsel Ajay Verma submitted it has started the process of issuing completion certificate to the builder and so far issued certificates to four towers -- 1, 3, 4 and 9.

The lawyer also submitted it would shortly issue certificates to other four towers after the builder clears all due.

Justice Kohli also allowed the DDA's plea to initiate formalities to auction 110 flats but said the auction cannot be done by the DDA without the court's permission.

Meanwhile, the court expressed its dissatisfaction over the Urban Development Ministry for its failure to file an affidavit about the Group of Ministers' (GOM) decision on the DDA's request to relax the norms for those flats which were constructed in excess of the floor area limitation.

Directing the ministry to file the affidavit within a week, the court said that in case of failure the secretary MUD would be present in person in the court to explain the delay.

Earlier, the court had said the flats in the complex remained unoccupied since December 2010 after the Games were over and directed that the DDA and the Emaar MGF to carry out joint inspection in each flat, including the basement, and then issue completion certificates.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the CWG flat allottees Association seeking a direction to the DDA to issue completion certificates for more than 400 flats so that the private builder can hand over the possession to them.

According to the Association, the DDA is in possession of the entire project comprising 1,168 flats in 34 towers, of which 711 are unencumbered flats and no party has any right on them.