The Supreme Court has appointed a former Allahabad High Court judge to head a single-member committee tasked with identifying genuine members of a Noida housing society and determining their eligibility for flats, as a dispute over allotments dating back more than three decades remains unresolved despite a 2022 verdict intended to settle the matter.
The committee has been asked to complete the exercise within eight weeks and submit its report to the court. Implementation, however, has been repeatedly delayed by disagreements over the number and identity of eligible members. Noida has also been directed to provide secretarial and logistical support to the committee. The honorarium payable to justice Saxena, to be borne by Noida, will be determined at the next hearing.
The next hearing has been scheduled for December 2. The intervention comes more than three years after the Supreme Court’s September 22, 2022 judgment directed the Noida authority to allot multi-storeyed flats to 844 identified members of the society, while leaving the claims of 133 subsequent purchasers to be examined separately.
“Having regard to the fact that this process has remained inconclusive despite repeated affidavits and directions and considering that a large number of the original allottee-members have been awaiting the fruits of litigation for over three decades, we are satisfied that an independent verification mechanism to decide the competing claims and implement this Court’s earlier directions is necessary,” the bench said in its order last week.
Disputes concerning land acquisition and ceiling proceedings also reached the Allahabad High Court. The dispute dates back to allotments made in the 1990s to 1,754 members of the cooperative housing society, who deposited around ₹ 36 crore towards the proposed plots. Following complaints of fake memberships, Noida conducted an inquiry through a committee headed by its then deputy chief executive officer and cancelled the allotments in May 1998. The cancellation triggered prolonged litigation over the society’s land holdings, alleged violations of the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950, and the eligibility of its members. In its September 2022 judgment, the Supreme Court directed Noida to develop a group-housing plot in Sector 43 and facilitate flats of approximately 1,800 sq ft for 844 identified members, at prices applicable under its policy. It also directed Noida to examine the claims of 133 subsequent purchasers and extend similar benefits if they were found eligible.
