Centre asks SC to club RERA pleas

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 30

Faced with multiple litigations, the Centre today moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of all petitions against the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA pending in various high courts, including Bombay and Karnataka, to it.

Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh told a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that there were 21 petitions on the issue that should be transferred to the top court for adjudication. He said this was needed to avoid multiplicity of litigation on the issue.

The Bench agreed to hear the Centre’s plea to transfer these petitions against RERA pending in various high courts to the top court on September 4.

A year after being passed by Parliament, the Act came into effect on May 1 this year. It covers both new project launches and the ongoing ones that have not been completed. The Act makes it obligatory on part of builders not to book, sell or offer for sale, or invite persons to purchase any plot, apartment or building in any real estate project without registering the project with the authority created under it.

The law mandates each state and Union Territory to have its own regulatory authority to frame rules in accordance with the Act.

It requires developers and agents to mandatorily register their projects with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority by July 31. Any unregistered project would be deemed to be unauthorised by the regulator.

But its validity has been challenged in various high courts by several petitioners, including builders and promoters of real estate firms. The Bombay High Court recently asked the Centre and the state to file their responses on the petitions challenging various provisions of the Act.