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Deposit Rs.630 cr penalty, SC to DLF
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SME Times News Bureau | 28 Aug, 2014
The Supreme Court Wednesday penalised real estate giant DLF Rs.630 crore
for exploiting its dominant position to the disadvantage of its
customers in three projects in Gurgaon.
The bench of Justice
Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice N.V. Ramana said DLF would furnish an
undertaking to pay Rs.170 crore interest on the penalty of Rs.630 crore
or the amount that the court may direct it to pay by way of interest if
its appeal fails in the Supreme Court.
The court said DLF will
deposit Rs.50 crore of the Rs.630 crore within three weeks and the
balance of Rs.580 crore within three months from Wednesday.
The court directed the registry to put this amount in a fixed deposit in a nationalised bank.
In
a statement, DLF said the "appeal filed by DLF against the order of the
COMPAT has been admitted today (Wednesday) by the Supreme Court."
It
said the Supreme Court has "directed DLF to deposit Rs.630 crore in an
interest-bearing fixed deposit with the court for the duration of the
appeal proceedings.
"The amount is to be deposited within a period of three months, of which Rs.50 crore is to be deposited within three weeks."
The entire deposit is subject to the final decision of the Supreme Court, the DLF statement said.
DLF
will take all steps to comply with the directions of the Supreme Court
and remains confident of the merits of its case, the statement said.
During
the hearing, counsel Harish Salve assailed the order of the Competition
Commission of India and its being upheld by the Competition Appellate
Tribunal (COMPAT).
Salve said the addition of floors by DLF in no
way impacted adversely the flat allotees of the original building plan
that envisaged the 19-storey housing complex.
He also assailed
the CCI order of Aug 12, 2011, which was sustained by the COMPAT in
2013, saying that the Commission could not have imposed penalty based on
the three year average of the entire turnover of DLF's real estate
operations in the country.
He said it should have been restricted to Rs.1,100 crore - the sale price of three housing complexes.
The CCI told the court that DLF used its dominant position to the disadvantage of the flat allottees.
"It
is an exploitation of disadvantaged customers who were trapped",
counsel Amit Sibal, who appeared for the CCI, told the court.
He
said the flat allottees were asked to shell out more money after
additional floors were added which also resulted in the delay of the
project by two years.
Sibal said DLF presented a fait accompli
before the flat allottees as they had the option of either paying extra
money as demanded by DLF or exiting and getting only the money they had
paid for the flat refunded along with interest.
He said DLF never
told the applicants that there would be additional floors in the three
complexes and all they were told was that they will apply for additional
floors.
Sibal told the court that applying for the additional
floors and having permission for additional floors were two distinct
things.
Pointing to the abuse of the dominant position, Sibal
said any delay in making the payment towards the flat used to attract 18
percent interest and they had no option.
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