L&T has filed the case against all 2,830 sole and joint apartment owners of South City.
About 3,000 people might descend on the City Civil Court on Saturday in response to the summons for a hearing in a case filed by builders Larsen and Toubro (L&T) against the apartment owners of South City.
The builders and the apartment owners of the gated South City mini-township on Bannerghatta Road have been locked in legal wrangles for years now. The case in question is one of the many disputes that have dogged the swanky enclave that include exclusivity of property, deposit monies, delays, and shoddy maintenance, among others.
Saturday’s case relates to an injunction that building major L&T is seeking against the South City Housing Apartment Owners Association (Sugruha) for allegedly interfsering with the day-to-day maintenance of the residential complex. L&T has filed the case against all 2,830 sole and joint apartment owners of South City.
Sugruha president R Rajagopalan said, “The case has been filed against flat owners to browbeat us into submission in other cases.”
The association is trying hard to avoid a chaotic scene at the court. “We are trying to persuade apartment owners to give Sugruha a special power of attorney to make the court appearance on their behalf,” he said. So far, 300-odd have agreed.
In August 2011, Sugruha had approached the Competition Commission of India (CCI), alleging violation of Section 3 (anti-competitive agreements) and Section 4 (abuse of dominance) of the Competition Act 2002, by L&T and landowner Dinesh Ranka. Having found the complaints prima facie valid, CCI ordered a probe. Its investigation is on. If CCI’s order finds L&T and Ranka guilty, it could involve a penalty of a maximum of `4,500 crore (10% of the average annual turnover) on L&T alone. An order is expected soon.
At the last CCI hearing in March, Sugruha asked for some interim reliefs, “which include returning about `140 crore of our money lying with L&T and stopping further construction immediately because of serious violations of zoning regulations.”
Sugruha has also filed a petition in the high court, urging it to direct the BDA to act on the recommendations made by the Lokayukta, which had pointed out eight serious violations of the relevant zoning regulations by BDA while approving the Revised Modified Work Order of 2006 for the South City Project.
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