The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued an order halting any new allotments of flats in Oberoi Realty’s ‘Three Sixty North’ luxury residential project in Gurugram. This decision will remain in effect until the Director of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) reaches a verdict on a complaint that calls for the revocation of the project’s license.
The directive was handed down by a Division Bench comprising Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri and Justice Sanjiv Berry. The court instructed the DTCP to resolve the complaint brought by Advance India Projects Limited by July 20 or within two weeks thereafter. This should be done after all stakeholders have been given a fair hearing.
“Given the scale of the project and the involvement of various allottees’ rights, it is ordered that until the complaint/representation [Annexure P-11(A)] is adjudicated, no further allotments or creation of third-party rights by the respondents, namely IREO Group and Oberoi Realty, shall occur,” stated the court on July 7.
The court’s order comes shortly after the project, which spans 14.8 acres near the Golf Course Extension Road in Gurugram’s Sector 58, was announced. The estimated budget for the first phase of this ultra-luxury project stands between ₹8000 to ₹10,000 crores.
The directive was a response to a petition from Advance India Projects Limited, which accused IREO Group and Oberoi Realty of legal violations. According to the petition, the license was originally issued to IREO Group entities and later transferred to Oberoi Realty. The petition further claims that IREO Group entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Advance India Projects when they received foreign direct investment (FDI) for the land purchase. However, the license transfer to Oberoi Realty allegedly occurred without resolving the existing dispute over the MoU and the license itself.
One of the primary arguments presented was that the original licensee, an IREO Group associate company, did not own the land at the time of the license grant. “The license grant was entirely unlawful and violated the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act of 1975, specifically Section 3, which stipulates that a license can only be issued to the ‘owner’ of the land with clear title,” argued the petitioner.
However, IREO Group and Oberoi Realty countered that Advance India Projects had not secured an interim injunction from the commercial court concerning the MoU. They also contended that the license was issued by a competent authority, questioning the petitioner’s standing to challenge it.
The State assured that the complaint seeking license cancellation would be adjudicated according to the law. The court has urged a swift resolution to the matter.
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Senior Advocates RS Rai, Chetan Mittal, and Nalin Kohli represented the petitioners, while Additional Advocate General Sandeep Chhabra appeared for the State of Haryana. Senior Advocates Gaurav Chopra, Akshay Bhan, and Aashish Chopra represented the respondents.
