The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Saturday cancelled the Occupancy Certificate (OC) of around 2,000 flats at Sobha City, an apartment complex, for allegedly producing forged documents to obtain building plans. In an order, BBMP withdrew the OC of Sobha City, a project developed and sold by Sobha Ltd in Bengaluru’s Thanisandra Main Road where a two-bedroom flat costs around Rs 90 lakh to Rs 1.30 crore. The order said the building plan approval provided on June 4, 2013, and OCs provided on June 21, 2016, June 29, 2019, and January 24, 2020, has been cancelled. The building plan approval and OCs mention, “In case of any false information, misrepresentation of facts, or pending court cases, the permission shall be deemed to be cancelled." The move came after one of the flat owners at Sobha city, Srinivas Rao Talla, approached BBMP for an inquiry. During its probe, the civic body found that the builder had obtained the building plan approval and OC from it by providing a fake no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department. Commenting on the incident, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India (CREDAI) said in a statement: "The recent revoking of Occupancy Certificate of Sobha Ltd for their Sobha City project by the local Bangalore municipal authorities comes as surprise to the industry, as member developers of CREDAI have always embraced regulations and processes set forth for the real estate sector." "Sobha, along with other leading brands in the country is a long-time CREDAI member and, like all its member developers, has always abided by and complied with industry, including the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA). CREDAI believes that Sobha has never intentionally, in the past and even now, tried to violate any laws. The revoking of the OC appears to be more associated with reference to a set of documents submitted prior to the resubmission of the right documents. We are confident that Sobha will resolve this with the authorities concerned at the earliest and ensure none of the residents or customers will be affected," CREDAI added.
