‘No apparent error’: Allahabad high court rejects GNIDA’s review on IT firm plot

Noida: Allahabad high court has dismissed a review petition filed by Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority against its earlier judgment that set aside the cancellation of a plot allotted to an IT firm.The land parcel — 25-acre IT/ITES plot in Greater Noida's Tech Zone II — had originally been allotted in Oct 2007 to a consortium, led by Anant Raj Industries, and was later transferred to Elevator Properties through a lease deed executed on Aug 16, 2010. Elevator Properties Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary of Anant Raj Industries. On Feb 25, Justice Prakash Padia held that the authority failed to demonstrate any "error apparent on the face of the record" in the court's June 9, 2025 ruling, which quashed the cancellation order and restored the allotment. While dismissing the review plea, Justice Padia observed that the authority was effectively seeking a rehearing of the case without pointing to "any apparent error".The Authority cancelled the allotment through an order dated June 30, 2023, citing non-utilisation of land, failure to obtain a completion certificate and other alleged defaults. The cancellation was subsequently upheld by the state govt in a revisional order dated Nov 23, 2023.Elevator Properties challenged the action before the HC in 2024, contending that the Authority failed to complete external development works such as roads, drainage and other essential infrastructure, rendering the land commercially unusable despite the developer paying the entire premium at the time of lease execution.A key issue in the case was the amendment to Section 7 of the UP Industrial Area Development Act introduced through the UP Industrial Area Development (Amendment) Act, 2022. Under the amended provision, development authorities were required to issue notices to defaulting allottees at least three months before Dec 31, 2022, directing them to complete construction If the land remained unused, the allotment would stand cancelled on Dec 31, 2022.In its earlier ruling, the court noted GNIDA issued the notice to the allottee only on Jan 3, 2023, well after the statutory deadline of Sept 30, 2022 for issuing such notices. The court held that once the authority missed the mandatory deadline, it lacked jurisdiction to cancel the allotment thereafter and therefore quashed both the cancellation order and the state govt's revisional order. GNIDA filed a review petition seeking reconsideration of the judgment.