NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to modify its directive to demolish the twin 40-storey towers in Noida for the violation of norms. It dismissed an application of Supertech Ltd seeking to save one tower and partially demolish 224 units in the other to conform to building bye-laws.
The top court said that a grant of such relief is akin to reviewing the judgments of this court, and such an attempt is impermissible in a miscellaneous application filed by the realty firm.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna said that the judgment of this court dated August 31, has specifically affirmed the direction issued by the division bench of Allahabad High Court for demolition of T-16 and T-17 of the Emerald Court Project, which is evident from the ultimate conclusions contained in the judgment.
"In essence, what the applicant seeks is that the direction for demolition of T-16 and T-17 should be substituted by retention of T-16 in its entirety and slicing off a portion of T-17. Clearly, the grant of such relief is in the nature of a review of the judgement of this court," the bench said in its order.
The top court said that in successive decisions, this court has held that the filing of an application styled as ‘Miscellaneous Application’ or application for clarification in the guise for review cannot be countenanced.
"The attempt in the Miscellaneous Application is clearly to seek a substantive modification of the judgement of this court. Such an attempt is not permissible in Miscellaneous Application," the bench said, adding, "For the above reason, there is no substance in the Miscellaneous Application, which is accordingly dismissed."