For years, thousands of flat buyers across India have lived in a peculiar legal limbo — they own their apartments, they pay their maintenance, their cooperative housing society is registered and functioning, and yet the land their building stands on remains in the name of the builder. The reason given, almost always, is that some other wing or tower in the same large layout is still under construction, and the builder insists that conveyance of land will happen only once everything is done. A Supreme Court bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe has now firmly shut the door on that argument.

On April 10, 2026, the Supreme Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition filed by M/s Mahanagar Realty, a Pune-based developer, against a Bombay High Court judgment delivered in February 2026. In doing so, it has affirmed a ruling that carries consequences far beyond the plot of land in Dhankawadi, Pune that sparked the original dispute. The judgment establishes, with the Supreme Court’s seal of approval, that a completed housing society is entitled to its proportionate share of land under the provisions of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963 (MOFA) — regardless of whether the builder has finished constructing other buildings in the same layout.

How It All Began

The story begins in the early 2010s, when Mahanagar Realty proposed a large residential development on a 22,609 square metre plot on Pune-Satara Road in Dhankawadi. The project was to consist of four wings — A, B, C, and D — forming three independent sub-projects. Wings A and B were clubbed together as “Ganga Ishanya AB,” Wing C was a separate project called “Ganga Ishanya C,” and Wing D was envisioned under the name “Ganga Nakshatra.”

Flat buyers began signing agreements from 2011 onwards. Over the next several years, construction of Wings A, B, and C was completed. The occupancy certificate for Wings A and B came through in September 2018, and for Wing C in June 2021. Two separate co-operative housing societies were duly registered — one for Wings A and B, and another for Wing C. Members moved in, the buildings were fully functional, and yet no conveyance of land was executed by the developer in favour of either society.

2011

Original layout sanctioned for Wings A, B, C and a small ground+one floor Wing D. Flat purchase agreements begin.

2017–2022

Developer repeatedly revises sanctioned plans. Wing D is quietly expanded from a small commercial structure to a proposed 26-floor, 203-unit residential tower — without flat buyers’ explicit consent.

Sept 2018 & June 2021

Occupancy certificates issued for Wings A&B and Wing C respectively. Two co-operative housing societies registered. Land conveyance still not executed by developer.

2023

Both housing societies file Application No. 167 of 2023 before the District Deputy Registrar under Section 11 of MOFA, seeking deemed conveyance of their proportionate land share.

November 17, 2023

Competent Authority grants deemed conveyance — 11,890.53 sq.m. to Ganga Ishanya AB and 4,174.39 sq.m. to Ganga Ishanya C, calculated proportionately based on the 2018 sanctioned plan.

February 23, 2026

Bombay High Court (Justice Sharmila U. Deshmukh) dismisses Mahanagar Realty’s writ petition, fully upholding the Competent Authority’s order.

April 10, 2026

Supreme Court dismisses Special Leave Petition. The societies’ land rights are now final and binding.

The Developer’s Objections

Mahanagar Realty’s opposition to the conveyance was not a blanket refusal — the developer acknowledged that some land had to be conveyed. The dispute was about how much. The developer produced an architect’s certificate showing smaller land entitlements for the two societies, which would have left a larger portion available for the under-construction Wing D. The developer argued that the competent authority had conveyed more land than the societies were entitled to, and that this made it practically impossible to complete Wing D as per the building permissions already granted.

The developer also leaned on a contractual clause present in some flat purchase agreements, which stated that conveyance would be executed to an apex society — comprising all three sub-projects — only after the last building in the entire layout was completed. In essence, the argument was: wait for Wing D to finish, and then everything will be conveyed together. The developer further contended that without a formal architect’s certificate placed before the competent authority, there was no proper basis for the area calculation.

What the Courts Found

The Bombay High Court was unimpressed by each of these arguments. On the question of the architect’s certificate, Justice Deshmukh noted that the calculation was straightforward arithmetic — the constructed built-up area of each wing as a proportion of total permissible FSI, multiplied by the total plot area, as directed by a Government Resolution of June 22, 2018. The sanctioned plan of 2018 was already on record and the built-up areas were undisputed. No separate architect’s certificate was needed for a calculation of this nature.

The architect’s certificate the developer sought to rely on was, in any event, disqualified on multiple grounds — it had been produced before the High Court for the first time (never placed before the competent authority), it was based on a revised 2022 sanctioned plan rather than the 2018 plan, and it came with a disclaimer that its figures were subject to a pending decision before the Pune Municipal Corporation. The court declined to place any reliance on it.

A builder cannot use the unfinished portion of a layout as a shield to indefinitely delay handing over land rights to residents whose buildings are long completed.

On the contractual clause requiring conveyance only after the apex society is formed, the High Court cited a coordinate bench ruling in Lok Housing & Construction Ltd vs State of Maharashtra, which had held that such clauses directly conflict with Rule 9 of the MOFA Rules. The law does not permit a developer to tie conveyance to an indeterminate future event — the completion of another building — no matter what the agreement says. A contractual term cannot override a statutory right.

The court went further and addressed what it found to be the real motive behind the developer’s resistance. Over the years, Mahanagar Realty had progressively revised the sanctioned plan for Wing D — from a modest ground-plus-one commercial structure envisioned in the 2011 plans to a 26-floor, 203-unit residential tower. To fund this enhanced construction, the developer had been loading additional Transfer of Development Rights (TDR). The mathematical consequence of loading more TDR is that the proportionate share of already-completed buildings in the total plot area gets diluted. By opposing the area conveyed to the two societies, the court found, the developer was effectively asking the flat buyers of Wings A, B, and C to subsidise the enhanced construction of Wing D with their own land entitlement.

The Supreme Court, on April 10, 2026, saw no reason to interfere with this reasoning. The petition was dismissed without qualification.

What This Means for Flat Owners Across India

The immediate effect of this ruling is concrete and clear for the residents of Ganga Ishanya — their land is now theirs, legally and finally, without any further obstacle. But the significance of this judgment reaches well beyond one housing complex in Pune.

What This Ruling Means for You — If You Live in a Large Layout

• If your building is complete and your co-operative housing society is registered, you are entitled to seek deemed conveyance of your proportionate land share — even if other wings or towers in the layout are still being built.
• A builder cannot use the “wait for the apex society” or “wait for the last building” argument to delay your land rights indefinitely. Such clauses in sale agreements have been held to conflict with MOFA Rules.
• The proportionate area you are entitled to is calculated based on the sanctioned plan at the time your building was completed — the developer cannot dilute your share by loading additional TDR for other under-construction wings.
• You do not need to wait for the developer to voluntarily execute the conveyance deed. Section 11 of MOFA allows your society to approach the Competent Authority (District Deputy Registrar) directly for deemed conveyance.
• The Government Resolution of June 22, 2018 provides a clear formula for calculating proportionate land area in multi-building layouts. Competent authorities are bound to follow it.

India’s real estate landscape is full of large township projects and multi-tower layouts where some buildings have been completed and occupied for years while other phases remain under construction. In many of these cases, flat buyers have received their homes but not the land beneath them. Developers have routinely cited the ongoing construction in other phases as a reason to defer conveyance. This judgment categorically rejects that position.

The ruling also sends a pointed message about TDR manipulation. Where a developer seeks to enhance construction in an unfinished wing by loading additional development rights, courts will not allow this to come at the cost of residents in already-completed buildings. The FSI and TDR position as it stood when a building was completed will be the basis for calculating that building’s land entitlement — it cannot be retroactively diluted.

For housing societies considering action against their developers, this judgment provides a clear and well-reasoned legal foundation. The path to the Competent Authority under Section 11 of MOFA is open, the formula for calculation is settled, and the Supreme Court has now confirmed that no contractual sleight of hand can take away what the law guarantees.

As for Mahanagar Realty, the developer retains the remaining land and is free to continue constructing Wing D. But if the developer wishes to claim additional TDR benefits for an expanded Wing D, the High Court has made clear that the appropriate forum is a civil court — not a proceeding that compromises the land rights of the residents next door.

The post Landmark Verdict: Housing Societies Need Not Wait for Builder to Complete Entire Project to Claim Their Land, Rules Supreme Court appeared first on Square Feat India.