Ghaziabad: The Allahabad high court has pulled up the state govt and Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) for allowing buyers at Gulmohar Greens society to take possession of flats without a completion certificate (CC), calling the practice a “flagrant violation” of the law.A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Chauhan and Saral Srivastava on Thursday rejected an affidavit filed by GDA as “wholly incomplete” and asked the authorities to submit “a better one” by the next hearing on Sept 14. The bench also ordered personal appearance of the principal secretary (housing and town planning), and GDA vice-chairperson Nand Kishore Kalal.The court had specifically sought details of who was the competent authority responsible for ensuring compliance with Section 4(5) and Section 15-A of the UP (Promotion of Construction, Ownership and Maintenance) Act, 2010, which govern compliance and CC requirements. It also sought details of the GDA vice-chairperson who held office from Jan 1, 2011, to Dec 31, 2011.The case resulted from a residents’ petition filed in 2025 against the developer. The original 2006 layout involved 35 towers with 904 dwelling units, but 34 towers were eventually built. The developer subsequently obtained compounding in 2011 and 2015 and sought another in 2024. These approvals added 720 units across various towers.Residents alleged that the sanctioned plan could not be altered without their written consent. They also alleged that the developer sold common area on the ground floor while the project did not have a CC.A CC is mandatory after completion. Before issuing it, the development authority checks whether construction matches the sanctioned plan. Deviations beyond permissible limits can lead to refusal.GDA argued that the compoundings were allowed under existing rules. Compounding permits deviations from the sanctioned plan on payment of an additional charge, subject to prescribed limits.The scale of the wider issue emerged from records showing that between 2004 and 2022, GDA approved maps for 2,253 projects, but CCs were obtained for only 221.A GDA official said, “In an earlier order, the court had sought personal appearance of GDA VC Nand Kishore Kalal in the case, which he did. But the court has now directed us to file another affidavit as it viewed the old affidavit ‘incomplete’. We are in the process of filing it on the next date of hearing.”
