On Thursday, the Supreme Court overturned Bombay High Court order, dismissed appeal filed NGO Janhit Manch and cleared the completion of Palais Royale. This comes years later, after allegations of building violations first surfaced.
According to sources, touted as India's tallest residential building at Worli Naka, Palais Royale got into legal trouble when NGO Janhit Manch approached Bombay High Court and challenged the excess refuge areas granted to the skyscraper by BMC and a public parking lot (PPL) building on the adjoining plot.
The saga of Rs 3,500-crore 'Palais Royale', in which some of India's high net worth individuals, comprising big names from the business and glamour world, besides top professionals and NRIs, have booked super-deluxe flats, starting a decade ago, in 2009.
The country's tallest residential skyscraper, standing at almost 295-metres, on a 28,400-square metres plot, is expected to have more than 160 high-end apartments of which nearly 80 per cent have been sold out. Later, there were problems with finances, a deal soured with another prominent realtor, serious lapses and illegal constructions detected by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), that put brakes on the progress of the project that was to be fully completed by 2012.
According to reports, Honest Shelters, a little-known company from Pune, bought the tower for Rs 705 crore. During the hearing Supreme Court said, "We have examined the matter on merits, notwithstanding that we are not satisfied with the bona fides of PIL, as the litigation has a chequered history and has several rounds." The Supreme Court also directed BMC to take over PPL and decide concerning 13 floors (44th to 56th floors) of the residential building within one month.
