188 home owners of Chintels Paradiso move Supreme Court seeking aid

At least 188 homeowners of the Chintels Paradiso condominium, where multiple ceilings collapsed on February 10 killing two residents, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking compensation, rehabilitation, an independent structural audit and action against the developer, contractor and other stakeholders, said a member of the residents’ legal team.

The incident had led to residents protesting and questioning the government and the developer regarding the safety of the entire building complex. Meanwhile, the state government had ordered a structural audit in February and formed a district-level committee to probe the matter. In March, the chief minister also announced that the Central Bureau of Investigation would probe the incident.

However, homeowners said that they were forced to file the petition as there has been little progress. “The CBI probe still remains on paper, the structural audit team is still being finalised, there is no concrete offer of compensation and no action has been taken against the developer. We hope that the apex court will give us justice,” said a petitioner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Sandeep Barsaiyan, a home owner and a petitioner in the case, said that 188 owners filed the petition through senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday. “We have submitted the petition and the homeowners are very hopeful of getting justice,” she said.

RS Bhath, district town planner, enforcement, who is a member of the district investigation committee probing the incident said that the Indian Institute of Delhi (IIT) Delhi has already submitted a preliminary report, on the basis of which a structural auditing agency and testing experts will be hired. “The investigation of the matter is ongoing but since it is a complex matter involving multiple stakeholders, it is taking time,” he said.

To be sure, the matter regarding compensation and probe into the collapse at the condominium is already pending in the Supreme Court.

On February 28, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Haryana government, the department of town and country planning, district administrator, Gurugram commissioner of police, besides the developer Chintels India Private Limited, its directors Ashok Solomon, Prashant Solomon and Om Chandra Srivastava, and the builder, Bhayana Builders Private Limited on a petition filed by a Class 11 student, whose mother was killed in the incident.

The court sought responses from the Haryana government, the department of town and country planning, real estate firm Chintels India (the developer) and the state police authorities on the minor boy’s demand for an independent probe into the incident, a structural audit by IIT Delhi of the construction material used by the builder/developer, and punitive damages and compensation from all those involved, including state government officials, for granting occupancy certificate for the towers in the complex, which the plea alleged to be a “death trap”.

Though the court fixed the matter after three weeks, the matter has not yet come up for hearing. While issuing a notice, the bench of justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy had said, “We are issuing a notice to ensure if there is any wrongdoing in the (real estate) industry, it can be taken care of.”