Noida: As the Supertech Twin Tower came crashing down on Sunday, it marked the victory of a legal battle that was fought for a period of 9 years.
A group of four senior citizens took on the mammoth task of fighting against real estate giants Supertech Limited. UBS Teotia, Ravi Bajaj, M.K Jain, and S.K Sharma waged a battle against the violation of by-laws during the construction of the Twin Towers.
The residents formed a legal committee and started raising funds to sustain the long-running legal battle against the real-estate giants.
Talking to IANS, UBS Teotia said that “The society was considered elite at the time, but when I moved into the society in 2010, there was nothing as promised. In addition, these two towers were constructed, which was illegal and not sanctioned.”
He further added, “First of all we approached the builders but to no avail. Next, we went to the Noida Authority and the police, but there were no results. We also approached the then minister Azam Khan but that was also of no use. And, ultimately, we reached the Allahabad high court in 2012.”
In 2014, the High Court passed a ruling in favor of the residents and slammed the Noida Authorities for colluding with the builders. The company challenged the orders in the Supreme Court. After a “tough journey” of more than 30 hearings in the span of seven years, the apex court passed the verdict to demolish the towers.
During the long and tough journey of these residents, M.K Jain passed away in the year 2021 due to COVID-19.
One of the members of the core legal committee S.K Sharma in an interview with PTI said that “These were old men who fought this case. Teotia, who was a DIG in the CRPF, led the battle with all of us by his side,”
Supertech Limited claimed that they incurred a loss of ₹500 crores including construction and interest loss from the demolition of the Twin Towers.
Company’s Chairman R K Arora while talking to PTI said that “Our overall loss is around Rs 500 crore, taking into account the amount we have spent on land and construction cost, the charges paid to authorities for various approvals, interest paid to banks over the years and the 12 percent interest paid back to buyers of these two towers, among other costs”.