Delhi High Court pulls up DDA, upholds order for demolition of Mukherjee Nagar apartments

Further, the amount of facilitation amount/rent should be enhanced at the rate of 10 per cent per annum by the DDA, at the end of each year, till possession of reconstructed flats is handed over to the owners of the flats of Signature View Apartments. Meanwhile, the court pulled up the DDA, which had constructed the towers under the DDA Housing Scheme, for its “delinquency and gross negligence”.

“The residential towers constructed by the DDA have been found to be unfit for habitation by structural experts upon detailed examination and investigation, and have been declared as dangerous. Despite extensive repair work, the degeneration and dilapidation of the structures could not be prevented on account of the poor quality of construction… The present cases accentuate the disregard shown by the DDA of its welfare purposes, for which it was established for the development of Delhi. The facts on record underscore the laxity by the DDA in discharging its public functions enshrined under the statute, wherein ordinary citizens have been put in a perilous situation on account of substandard and inferior construction of residential towers by DDA,” the court recorded in its order.

A bunch of petitions were filed by the residents/owners of the towers, including 336 flats, where some were seeking demolition and reconstruction of the flats and blocks (towers) on account of the dilapidated condition of the flats. Some had also challenged conditions in the rehabilitation offer letter, seeking that the condition where alternate accommodation should only be given to the residents only after all residents hand over the possession of the flats, be declared illegal and arbitrary.

Of the 336 flats, 224 are HIG, and the remaining 112 are in the MIG category. The flats were allotted through the 2010, 2014 and 2017 DDA housing draw. The last allotment was done in October 2019. After two to three years of the first allotment of the flats in 2010 and possession thereof in 2012, cracks started to develop along with several other instances of dilapidation.