For beleaguered Signature View residents, Delhi HC order directing DDA to pay them rent a welcome relief

The order requires the DDA to pay Rs 38,000 per month for MIG (middle-income group) flats and Rs 50,000 a month to HIG (high-income group) flat owners. Further, the amount of facilitation amount/rent shall be enhanced at the rate of 10% per annum by the Authority, at the end of each year, till possession of the reconstructed flats is handed over to the owners.

The court also turned down DDA’s offer to start paying rent only when all 336 residents had vacated the buildings. Out of the total 336 flats, 125 families have already moved out.

“It is definitely a very pro-resident judgment,” Verma, who is also vice-president of the Signature View Apartments RWA, said.

Amarender Jha, former RWA president, also said it’s a welcome move by the High Court.

He still lives in the apartment complex, and a crack running across the main column of his house reminds him of the dangers of living there. “We want the order to be executed immediately,” he said. “In the next three months, once we hand over the flats, the DDA has to sign an agreement and start paying rent. The Authority has to give us a timeline for all this. It also has to come up with a new plan and layout and show it to us as part of the agreement.”

Residents had started noticing the sub-standard construction when they moved in around 2012. Since then, there have been repeated instances of debris falling inside flats and outside on cars. Naked steel rods and brick walls exposed to the elements are visible in many parts of the 12-building complex. Walls and pillars are cracked in numerous places. A 2022 report by IIT-Delhi recommended the demolition of all the buildings. The MCD issued a demolition order in December last year, declaring the buildings structurally unsafe.

In her 145-page judgment, Justice Mini Pushkarna rapped the Authority, which had constructed the towers under the DDA Housing Scheme, for its “delinquency and gross negligence”. The court also did not accept DDA’s request to construct an additional 168 flats on the 2.83-hectare land due to an increase in the available Floor Area Ratio (FAR) as per current norms of construction in Delhi.

Amarender Kumar, the 52-year-old RWA president, said: “We are happy about this as this would’ve led to a resource crunch and caused devaluation of our property.”

While residents termed the order “positive”, they were also apprehensive regarding the DDA’s course of action after the judgment.

“Those who could afford to and those who were scared have already moved out… the rest are waiting and watching. People are scared that the DDA might challenge this single-bench order and the issue might go to a double-bench. If it does, then the legal process will again take up to a year,” said Kumar.

The DDA refused to comment as the matter is sub-judice.