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GREATER NOIDA: The Allahabad High Court has stayed Uttar Pradesh government’s order that approved interest waivers and other benefits to realty firm Sunworld City in its 414,000 square metres mixed-land use township located in Sector 22D along the Yamuna Expressway.
Justice Arun Kumar passed the interim order on December 3 during the hearing.
The high court order came in response to the Yamuna Expressway industrial development authority’s (Yeida) petition that challenged the UP government’s decision taken under Section 41(3) of the UP Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973.
The court said the issues required consideration, and kept the operation of the government order in abeyance while also issuing notice to the Sunworld City.
“We have suffered for the last 14 years because the Yeida failed to give us the possession of the 151,000 square metres (sqms) out of 414,000 sqms land that was allotted to us in 2010 via an auction. And when the state government has given us relief, granting us the interest waivers and directed us to execute lease-deed, the Authority has challenged the order in the high court, further delaying the project and adding to our suffering. We now hope that the high court will do justice to us as we have complied with all rules and regulations,” Sanjiv Gupta, promoter of the Sunworld City project told HT on Sunday.
Yeida had allotted land in 2010 but cancelled it in 2011 citing non-payment of the land cost dues, forcing us to take the matter to the high court.
In an interim order in June 2012, a division bench allowed execution of a lease deed upon deposit of one year’s lease rent and stamp duty, and gave the developer the option to proceed either with the entire allotment or only the portion over which Yeida had undisputed possession.
The Sunworld chose the latter and in September 2012, Yeida executed a lease deed for about 65 acres of undisputed land.
Yeida told the court that Sunworld later sought surrender of the land, which the Authority accepted through resolutions passed in its board meetings in 2019 and 2020. A challenge to those resolutions by consortium partner Vanalika Developers was dismissed by the high court.
Following a December 21, 2023 government order for stalled projects (that allowed concessions like interest waivers and others on payment of 25 per cent dues, Yeida issued a demand letter in April 2024, offering the Sunworld City an opportunity to revive the project on payment of 25% of the lease premium. Sunworld challenged the demand before the state government, leading to the July 2, 2025 order.
In that order, the government accepted the developer’s claim that the handed over land was incomplete, scattered and partly unacquired. It recorded that nearly 20 acres of the land was Gram Sabha’s property formally acquired only in December 2017, despite being shown as acquired in Yeida’s scheme brochure.
Citing these factors, the government directed Yeida to take steps for execution of leases restricted to undisputed land and declared the entire intervening period as a “zero period”, waiving penal interest, extension charges and related dues.
Challenging this, Yeida argued that the government had ignored the high court’s 2012 directions, ordered lease execution notwithstanding unresolved disputes, and granted zero-period relief despite Sunworld allegedly making no deposits even for land in its possession since 2012.
Finding that the matter required judicial scrutiny, the high court stayed the July 2 order. The court allowed six weeks for filing counter-affidavits, and listed the case for further hearing after completion of pleadings.
Yeida officials refused to comment, maintaining that now the high court will settle the dispute once and for all.
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