A Division Bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that RERA has devolved into a haven for retired bureaucrats who have undermined the intentions of the RERA Act.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court expressed significant discontent with the operations of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) during a hearing on Friday(27th Sept).
A Division Bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that RERA has devolved into a haven for retired bureaucrats who have undermined the intentions of the RERA Act.
The Court remarked,
“We prefer not to discuss RERA further, as it has become a rehabilitation center for former bureaucrats who have sabotaged the entire purpose of the Act.”
The RERA Act of 2016 was established to regulate and enhance transparency within the real estate sector, safeguard homebuyers, and guarantee the timely completion of projects.
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act of 2016, referred to here as the “Act,” applies throughout India, excluding Jammu and Kashmir. The provisions of the RERA Act are relevant to residential apartments, buildings, and plots, regardless of whether they are residential or commercial.
According to the Act, a “Real Estate Project” includes the development of buildings with apartments, converting existing structures into apartments, and developing land into plots for the sale of all or some of these apartments to fulfill the Act’s objectives.
Under the RERA Act, it is mandatory to register any project exceeding five hundred square meters. Key aspects of the RERA Act encompass project-related information, contract documents for property transactions, specifications for carpet area, a limitation on advance fees to ten percent of the apartment price, a requirement to deposit seventy percent of the funds collected from buyers into an escrow account, timely project completion, and associated penalties.
Therefore, it is crucial to understand that the RERA Act is a comprehensive law that encompasses all the aforementioned projects, regardless of whether they are commercial or residential.
The Court was considering an appeal against a Delhi High Court ruling that rejected requests for banks and financial institutions to stop charging pre-EMIs or full EMIs from the petitioners and other homebuyers in similar situations, stating that alternative remedies, such as RERA, were available.
Case Title: Bharati Jagat Joshi v. Reserve Bank of India and Ors
