Allahabad High Court
Richa Pal And Another vs State Of Up And 3 Others on 24 July, 2024
Author: Manoj Kumar Gupta
Bench: Manoj Kumar Gupta
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Neutral Citation No. - 2024:AHC:118244-DB Court No. - 21 Case :- WRIT - C No. - 23361 of 2024 Petitioner :- Richa Pal And Another Respondent :- State Of Up And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Ajay Kumar Sharma Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Mohd. Afzal Hon'ble Manoj Kumar Gupta,J.
Hon'ble Manish Kumar Nigam,J.
1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners, Shri Rajiv Gupta, learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel for the State-respondents and Shri Md. Afzal, learned counsel for respondent-RERA.
2. The instant petition has been filed praying for a writ of mandamus directing respondent No.3 i.e. District Magistrate, Gautambudh Nagar to execute the recovery certificate dated 15.12.2023 issued by U.P. RERA for recovery of the sum payable to the petitioner under its order dated 02.05.2023. The said order was passed by U.P. RERA on the complaint filed by the petitioner against respondent No.4, the developer (M/s Wave Megacity Center Pvt. Ltd.).
3. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of U.P. RERA points out that in the past, a writ petition was filed by an allottee Amit Goyal (Writ - C No. 13818 of 2023) for enforcement of the recovery certificate against the same developer/promoter. In the said case, orders were passed for recovery of dues by sale of the attached shops. However, despite repeated attempts, the same could not materialize. The Court, therefore, taking into consideration the interest of the allottees as well as the offer made by the developer/promoter to make payment in installments against all recoveries pending against it at the relevant time passed a detailed order on 22.05.2023. Thereunder, a payment schedule was approved, according to which, the promoter/developer had to clear off the outstanding liability in respect of 203 allottees. The aforesaid 203 allottees were identified on basis of a list provided by District Magistrate and it was further directed that the payments would be made as per the seriatim mentioned in the list of District Magistrate.
4. The developer/promoter, we are informed, had strictly complied with the payment schedule and had thereby cleared the amount payable to several allottees.
5. Subsequently, large number of writ petitions start coming on basis of recoveries issued subsequent to the passing of the aforesaid order in the writ petition of Amit Goyal (Writ - C No. 13818 of 2023). The aforesaid petitions, leading one being Writ-C No. 42269 of 2023 (Hardeepak Singh and another vs. State of U.P. and 4 others), were entertained and again the District Magistrate was directed to apprise the Court of the recoveries that had come into existence after the passing of the previous order. In compliance of the said order, the District Magistrate filed his affidavit and disclosed that fresh liability of Rs.1,10,00,00,000/- is outstanding against the promoter/builder. The promoter/builder undertook to clear off the entire liability in a phased manner and accordingly after hearing the parties, a detailed order was passed on 27.02.2024 permitting the developer to pay the outstanding liabilities in eight installments each of around Rs.12,00,00,000/-. The operative part of the order passed in the said case is as follows:
"11. Sri Shashi Nandan, learned Senior Counsel, appearing for the Promoter, assisted by Sri Ashish Mishra, states that the Promoter has already prepared post-dated cheques in favour of U.P. RERA and seeks permission of the Court to hand over the said cheques to its counsel so that the claim of the remaining allottees is liquidated in order of seniority as per the disclosures made in the affidavit of the Collector, Gautam Budh Nagar. He further states that four cases shown in Annexure SCA-2 in respect of balance amount of the allottees would be duly cleared by the Promoter by depositing the amount due therein within ten days with the Collector.
12. Sri Mohd. Afzal, learned counsel for U.P. RERA and learned counsel for the petitioners in the instant case as well as in connected matters, agree to the aforesaid proposal. Ms. Akansha Sharma, learned Standing Counsel for the State respondents, also has no objection and accordingly we permit the Promoter to hand over post-dated cheques of the amounts noted above to the counsel for U.P. RERA.
13. We record the undertaking given by Sri Ashish Mishra on behalf of the Promoter that the post-dated cheques would be duly honoured and in case any of these cheques bounces, the Directors of the Promoter Company would be personally and vicariously liable. They would also be subject to prosecution under relevant laws, apart from such act amounting to deliberate violation of the undertaking given to this Court.
14. U.P. RERA will ensure that as and when any payment is made to any allottee, due information is given to the Collector and the Promoter, so that they may also be able to update their records. U.P. RERA before making payment, will verify whether there is any compromise or settlement between the Promoter and the allottee under which the Promoter had cleared the dues and will accordingly exclude claim of such person from the list.
15. In case of default on part of the Promoter in honouring its commitments noted above, it shall become open to the Collector and U.P. RERA to proceed further in the matter in accordance with law, by treating the aforesaid arrangement to have lapsed.
16. All the petitions stand disposed of in terms of the above arrangement."
6. Learned counsel for U.P. RERA and the promoter/developer point out that the name of the petitioners is at Serial No.120 in the list filed by the District Magistrate in the aforesaid case. It is stated that the dues of the petitioners would be cleared as per the seriatim, which is acceptable to counsel for the petitioners.
7. Accordingly, we dispose of the instant petition with a direction to U.P. RERA to make payment to the petitioners on her turn as disclosed in the chart annexed with the affidavit of District Magistrate filed in Writ-C No. 42269 of 2023.
(Manish Kumar Nigam, J.) (Manoj Kumar Gupta, J.) Order Date :- 24.7.2024 Ankit.