The Supreme Court has issued a stay on the eviction order for 22 residents of the Chintels Paradiso condominium in Gurugram’s Sector 109, providing temporary relief from a directive that had labeled three towers in the complex as structurally unsafe. This decision comes shortly after the Haryana government demanded the evacuation of the buildings within 15 days, citing safety concerns.
The residents of Towers A, C, and J, which were declared unsafe by an audit from the Central Building Research Institute, challenged the state’s evacuation order in court. The Supreme Court bench, led by Justice Abhay S Oka, responded to the plea by postponing the enforcement of the March 19 eviction order until at least April 9, allowing time for a further examination of the case.
JN Yadav, Vice President of Chintels India Ltd., which developed the complex, stated that they would present a detailed reply at the next hearing. The urgency of the situation was highlighted by a tragic incident on February 10, 2022, where renovations in a sixth-floor flat in Tower D led to a severe structural failure, resulting in fatalities and raising serious questions about the entire complex’s integrity.
Following that disaster, the Haryana department of town and country planning ordered a comprehensive structural audit of all nine towers in the complex. The audit’s findings led to the condemnation of six towers, and permission was granted to the developer to demolish them for safety reasons.
In their petition to the Supreme Court, the residents argued for the protection of their fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, referencing a previous 2024 Supreme Court order which had mandated the reconstruction of the towers. They claimed that despite the lapse of 11 months since that order, no reconstruction had commenced. Furthermore, the residents accused Chintels India Ltd. of attempting to coerce them into signing redevelopment agreements that could potentially increase the number of flats at the expense of existing residents’ space and amenities.
