At 2:30 pm on Sunday, the Supertech twin towers in Noida came down like a pack of cards in just 9 seconds, leaving fume of smoke clouds, a massive thud-like sound and a debris, which would take almost three months to clear.
But what actually led to this massive structure disappear into debris was an order of the Supreme Court passed on August 31 last year. This was a bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud and MR Shah, which passed these orders.
While passing the orders, the bench upheld the 2014 orders of the Allahabad High Court on the demolition of the 40-storey twin tower building of Supertech Limited’s Emerald Court project.
“The record of this case is replete with instances which highlight the collusion between the officers of NOIDA with the appellant and its management. The case has revealed a nefarious complicity of the planning authority in the violation by the developer of the provisions of law," said the two judges bench of the top court.
It further noted that the sanctioned plan for Twin Towers breached the NBR 2006, NBR 2010, NBC 2005, UP 1975 Act and the UP Apartments Act 2010. “it becomes its (court’s) duty to take stock of the violations committed by the appellant in collusion with NOIDA," the court said.
The bench in its August 31, 2021 order had also noted that Supertech had raised false pleas and attempted to mislead the top court, while the officials of NOIDA have not acted bona fide in the discharge of their duties.
“The appellant has stooped to the point of producing a fabricated sanctioned plan. Therefore, we confirm the directions of the High Court including the order of demolition and for sanctioning prosecution under Section 49 of the UPUD Act, as incorporated by Section 12 of the UPIAD Act 1976, against the officials of the appellant and the officers of NOIDA for violations of the UPIAD Act 1976 and UP Apartments Act 2010," the bench said.
While ending its judgment, the top court in its orders passed an year ago concluded:
(i) The order passed by the High Court for the demolition of Apex and Ceyane (T-16 and T-17) does not warrant interference and the direction for demolition issued are affirmed.
(ii) The work of demolition shall be carried out by Supertech at its own cost under the supervision of the officials of NOIDA. In order to ensure that the work of demolition is carried out in a safe manner without affecting the existing pleadings, NOIDA shall consult its own experts and experts from Central Building Research Institute Roorkee.
(iii) The work of demolition shall be carried out under the overall supervision of CBRI. In the event that CBRI expresses its inability to do so, another expert agency shall be nominated by NOIDA.
(iv) The cost of demolition and all incidental expenses including the fees payable to the experts shall be borne by Supertech.
Later, Supertech had challenged the said orders in review, however, the Supreme Court refused to change its stand over the same and finally in July this year, the top court had fixed the date of August 21 for the fall of these twin towers.
However, on August 12, the Noida Authority informed a bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud and A S Bopana that in view of the fact that certain work prior to demolition has to be completed by August 25 and as recommended by CSIR-CBRI, the date of demolition may be confirmed as August 28, 2022 with a “bandwidth of seven days" between August 29 and September 4 to take into account any marginal delay on account of technical reasons or weather conditions.
The bench agreed to the submission made by the Noida authority and CSIR-CBRI and fixed the date of August 28 for the demolition of these twin towers. The bench also gave a buffer period till September 4 in case of any marginal delay.
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