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Supertech Ltd. v. Emerald Court Owner Resident Welfare Association

Miscellaneous Application · 2021 INSC 599Decided 4 Oct 2021
Miscellaneous Application No. 1572 of 2021
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice B.V. Nagarathna

Background

This arises out of the well-known "Supertech Twin Towers" case, in which the Supreme Court had on 31 August 2021 upheld an Allahabad High Court order directing demolition of Towers 16 and 17 ("Apex" and "Ceyane") in the Emerald Court housing project in Noida, after finding the towers were illegally constructed in violation of building-distance norms, fire-safety rules, and the consent rights of existing flat owners. Supertech then filed a miscellaneous application asking the Court to modify its judgment to allow it to demolish only part of Tower 17 while retaining Tower 16 entirely, by slicing off a portion to meet the minimum-distance requirement.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the miscellaneous application, holding that what Supertech was really seeking, substituting the demolition of two full towers with partial demolition of only one, amounted to a review of its final judgment, which cannot be obtained by disguising it as an application for "modification" or "clarification." The Court noted that its original judgment had found multiple independent violations beyond just the minimum-distance issue (including loss of a promised green area and reduction of existing owners' share in common areas without consent), so even the proposed partial fix would not cure all the defects that justified demolition. The Court emphasized the importance of finality of judgments, criticizing the growing practice of filing disguised review applications to get a fresh hearing in open court.

Lesson Learnt

Once the Supreme Court has delivered a final judgment, a losing party cannot use an application labelled "modification" or "clarification" as a backdoor way to re-argue the merits: any substantive change to a final judgment must go through the proper review process, not a miscellaneous application.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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