Implausible To Accept Explanation Offered: Apex Court Expresses Reservation In Accepting Apology Of NCDRC Members Who Defied Its Order

The Supreme Court previously had issued notice to the Presiding Member and the Member of the NCDRC. In pursuance of this, they both filed a joint affidavit dated April 20, 2024, stating that the error was inadvertent and unintended.

The Bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah observed, “A bare perusal of the aforesaid order passed by the NCDRC on 08th March, 2024 itself demonstrates that counsel for the appellant herein (Judgement Debtor) had handed over a copy of the order passed by this Court on 01st March, 2024. It is implausible to accept the explanation offered now that the aforesaid order passed by this Court was not brought to the notice of the NCDRC. Further, even after recording that the order passed by this Court has been brought to its notice, the NCDRC proceeded to direct the appellant herein to file an affidavit of compliance with regard to the execution of decree. In our view, this direction itself is unacceptable and flies in the face of the order passed by this Court on 01st March, 2024.”

Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar appeared for the Appellant whereas AGI R Venkataramani and Advocate Deepak Kumar Khushlani appeared for the Respondents.

The Supreme Court had earlier given relief to the Appellant-Company and directed that no coercive steps should be taken against them in the Execution Application pending before NCDRC, New Delhi.

The Court said in its latest order, “Pursuant thereto, a joint affidavit dated 20th April, 2024, has been filed by the Presiding Member and Member of the NCDRC stating inter alia that the error committed by them was inadvertent and unintended, for which they seek an apology from this Court. The affidavit goes on to state that “at no stage the order dated 01st March, 2024, of the Hon’ble Supreme Court was brought to our notice by the proxy Advocates”. A similar submission has been made in paragraph ‘5’ of the affidavit wherein it has been stated that “it is respectfully submitted that, at no stage the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court dated 01.03.2024 directing that no coercive steps be taken against the Directors of the appellant-Company was also not brought to our notice by the counsel for either the decree holder or the proxy counsel/advocate proxies on behalf of the judgment debtors on 02.04.2024… We have expressed our reservations on the explanation sought to be offered in paragraphs ‘3’ and ‘5’ of the affidavit, inasmuch as, the said explanation runs contrary to the order passed by the NCDRC on 08th March, 2024.”

NCDRC's order of March 8 had referred to the older of the Supreme Court dated March 1, contrary to what was claimed in the Affidavit.

In the present case, execution proceedings were initiated against the Company, which is a project developer of the project “The Corridors” located at Golf Course Extension Road, Sector-67-A, Tehsil & District Gurgaon, Haryana. The Respondent is one of the apartment buyers and complainant in the pending proceedings before NCDRC. It was the case of the Respondent that the Company Ireo Grace had failed to complete the project and hand over the possession to the Complainant despite making all payments.

Cause Title: M/s Ireo Grace Realtech Pvt. Ltd. v. Sanjay Gopinath

Appearances:

Petitioners: Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, Advocates E. C. Agrawala, Mahesh Agarwal, Rishi Agrawala, Anshuman Srivastava, Biswabara Dash, Abhimanyu Bhandari, Rooh-e-hina Dua, Dhanakshi Gandhi and Ruchi.

Respondents: AGI R Venkataramani, Advocates Deepak Kumar Khushlani, Santosh Kumar Pandey, Chritarth Palli, Kusum Pandey, Abhay Kumar and Shagun Ruhil

Click here to read/download the Order