NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has paved the way for demolition and reconstruction of Signature View Apartments in Mukherjee Nagar area in the capital. A division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela passed the directions while upholding a single judge order and said the previous bench was right in observing that there was sufficient material before the MCD for passing the order to remove the buildings.
“It cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be said that there was no relevant material before the authority that passed the order dated December 18, 2023 for removal of the buildings,” the bench said on September 17.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by one Man Mohan Singh Attri challenging the single judge order passed in December last year.
According to the petition, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) constructed 336 flats known as Signature View Apartments, comprising 12 towers, initially for the use or occupation of players and officials of the Commonwealth Games, 2010.
After the conclusion of the games, the flats were sold by the DDA. The direction for the removal of buildings was observed to have been based on the reports of experts, including the report by an expert from IIT, Delhi, as also the test report regarding materials submitted by Shri Ram Institute of Industrial Research.
The division bench upheld that the buildings were structurally unsafe, with DDA’s repairs merely cosmetic. Based on structural reports and Section 348 of the DMC Act, the authority rightly ordered their demolition.