GDA cannot charge development fee from builders for elevated road or metro station: HC
The Allahabad High Court, on February 18, 2020, held that demanding external development fees from builders or developers under the heads of ‘elevated road and metro station’ and security for the ‘rainwater harvesting system’ was illegal and without jurisdiction. The court quashed the demands raised by the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) against builders and developers.
A bench comprising justice Pankaj Mithal and justice VC Dixit passed the order while allowing a writ petition filed by the Raj Nagar Extension (NH-58) Developers’ Association, a registered society with 25 real estate developers as its members. The petitioner’s plea was that the demand raised by the GDA was illegal and without jurisdiction, because individual developers and builders or the members of the society were not concerned with the construction of any elevated road or metro station and therefore, no fee on account of the same could be demanded from them under the head ‘external development charges’.
After hearing the counsels for the parties, the bench observed, “A perusal of the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning and Development (Assessment, Levy and Collection of Development Fee) Rules, 2014, reveals that there is no provision for demanding or collecting any development fee in context with elevated road or metro station.”
CCI slaps Rs one crore fine on Ghaziabad Development Authority
The Competition Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs one crore on the Ghaziabad Development Authority, for arbitrarily increasing the price of a flat in a housing scheme, from Rs two lakhs to Rs seven lakhs
March 1, 2018: The Competition Commission of India (CCI), on February 28, 2018, imposed a penalty of Rs one crore on the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA), for abuse of dominant position with regard to sale of flats under a housing scheme for the economically weaker sections (EWS). Passing a detailed order, the watchdog noted that consumers belonging to the EWS have been made to suffer, due to the abusive conduct of the GDA.