The Supreme Court has directed the police and district authorities in Gautam Buddh Nagar to remove all encroachments from plots allotted to Unitech Group in Noida’s sectors 96, 97 and 98, after a government-appointed board said entire villages had come up on the land, stalling construction of flats and delaying relief for thousands of homebuyers.
In an order passed on October 14, a bench of justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan expressed concern over the encroachments, warning that prolonged occupation could make their eventual removal difficult.
“We are informed by some of the learned counsel appearing in the matter that many open plots of the company (Unitech) have been encroached upon. This is something very serious. And if the encroachment continues, it will be difficult one fine day to remove the encroachment all of a sudden,” the bench said.
Advocate Anubha Agarwal, representing the board appointed by the Centre to oversee Unitech’s projects, told the court that the board was compiling a list of properties under encroachment. She said an entire village, named Maya Nagar, was among the encroachments in the three sectors and that the occupation was preventing the board from proceeding with construction.
Directing the police commissioner and the Noida Authority chief executive officer (CEO), along with the Gautam Buddh Nagar district magistrate, to act urgently, the court ordered that “each and every encroachment on these plots” be removed at the earliest.
“The encroachment should not hamper the further progress, insofar as the construction work which is to commence is concerned. The police administration is to act immediately,” the bench said, directing the three authorities to submit a compliance report by November 17, the next date of hearing.
The court also directed the board to provide the Noida CEO and police commissioner with a list of all properties under illegal occupation.
The order was passed in a batch of petitions filed by Unitech homebuyers who have been waiting for more than a decade for possession of their homes. In 2020, the Union ministry of corporate affairs took control of the company and appointed a new board to complete its stalled projects, which involve more than 12,000 homebuyers.
Unitech projects in Noida
The projects in sectors 96, 97 and 98 – Amber, Burgundy and Willows – comprise luxury residential towers and bungalow plots, together catering to 5,586 homebuyers.
Amber and Burgundy are planned across 164 acres spread over the three sectors. Amber envisages seven towers with 422 apartments, while Burgundy comprises seven towers with 395 apartments. Construction remains incomplete, and around 638 homebuyers in the two projects are awaiting possession. Noida approved revised building plans for the projects in 2024. The authority has also cleared the building plans for Willows, which proposes 397 bungalow plots.
The delay in completing Unitech’s projects has persisted despite efforts by the Centre-appointed board to mobilise funds and resolve disputes with land-owning authorities. In 2021, the board submitted a plan to the Supreme Court promising delivery of 15,000 residential units within two years. The process faced hurdles, including unpaid dues from some homebuyers and charges raised by land-owning authorities in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and other states.
The board previously told the court that projected recoveries from various sources, including homebuyers, could make ₹16,970 crore available for completing the projects.
, brothers Sanjay and Ajay Chandra, face prosecution over allegations of cheating homebuyers and diverting funds overseas. Their father, Ramesh Chandra, and Sanjay’s wife, Preeti Chandra, are also accused in a money-laundering probe involving alleged proceeds of crime exceeding ₹7,000 crore. The Enforcement Directorate has said it has attached assets worth ₹2,600 crore.
The promoters are also facing prosecution in 63 cases investigated by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing, in which chargesheets have been filed and trials are yet to begin. They were arrested in 2017.
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A forensic audit of the group found that the former directors had allegedly laundered ₹13,000 crore, which the board said remained untapped and should be brought into the pool of funds available to complete construction. Last month, the Supreme Court indicated that criminal cases against the could be expedited to help make the proceeds of crime attached by the ED available for completing the pending projects.
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