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Informist, Tuesday, May 26, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to order the demolition of Inorbit Mall and Four Points hotel at Navi Mumbai, observing that destroying a fully operational commercial complex after 17 years with INR 4.50 billion of investment, involving the livelihoods of 8,000 people, and that gave INR 1 billion of annual tax revenue, would not vindicate the public interest. The financial prejudice caused to City and Industrial Development Corp. Ltd. by the irregularity in the allotment of land to K. Raheja Corp. Pvt. Ltd. for developing the mall and hotel is entirely capable of being remedied through a rigorous financial recovery mechanism, the court said.

 

The apex court asked K. Raheja Corp to pay INR 3.18 billion to City and Industrial Development Corp. for the entire area of the plot, being the fair market value as established by the rates applicable to Sector 30A, Vashi, Navi Mumbai, as of November 2014. The amount already paid by the developer towards the purchase price of the plot at the rate of INR 10,250 per square metre should be adjusted and deducted from the total amount payable, the court said. The developer should additionally pay INR 10 million in lieu of the obligation to develop a garden on plot number 40, which remained unfulfilled, the court said. Subject to the payment of this amount within a period of four months, the allotment of the plot in favour of the developer will stand regularised, the court said.

 

The passage of time and the accretion of economic and social reality have rendered demolition not merely impractical but demonstrably contrary to the public interest, the court said. The social and economic harm caused by demolition would be catastrophic and irreparable. Public law must be sensitive to the distinction between remedies that restore public welfare and remedies that merely punish, when punishment comes at the cost of the very public the law seeks to protect, it added.

 

The bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe said that the case requires that City and Industrial Development Corp. be fully and fairly compensated for the financial loss it suffered, that the developer be penalised in proportion to its wrongdoing, and that the livelihoods and economic activity of thousands of innocent third parties be protected. A regularisation conditioned upon payment of full market value as of 2014 achieves all three objectives, the bench said, adding that demolition achieves none.  

 

The case has its genesis in public-interest litigations filed in the Bombay High Court alleging that the City and Industrial Development Corp. had illegally allotted the land to K. Raheja Corp. The petitioners had said that the land was given at cheap rates without issuing tenders. A committee set up by the Maharashtra government found that the City and Industrial Development Corp. had made 61 allotments in violation of its regulations, resulting in an estimated aggregate loss of INR 3.47 billion. In 2014, the high court directed the K. Raheja Corp. to restore the land to its original position and hand back the vacant possession of the premises to the City and Industrial Development Corp. When the case reached the top court, it directed the parties to maintain the status quo.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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