Keep matter before RERA tribunal in abeyance: HC

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 13

More than a year after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took cognisance of an alleged discrepancy in the provisions of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority Act, a Division Bench today ordered that the proceedings before the RERA tribunal and appellate authority be kept in abeyance.

The order would be applicable to the cases in which RERA orders are under challenge before the Division Bench and not all matters before the tribunal and appellate authority. Cases not before the Division Bench would be heard as usual.

The alleged discrepancy relates to declaration of time period for completion of a project. Primarily, a promoter or a person authorised by him is required to declare the time frame for completing a project or its phase. A date is also mentioned in the sale agreement executed with the buyer.

The Act at some stage makes the time frame mentioned in the declaration binding and at another the date mentioned in the sale agreement.

Appearing before the Bench in one of the petitions filed against the Union of India and other respondents by Gurgaon-based Experion Developers, senior advocate Puneet Bali, highlighting the inconsistency, argued the perusal of the provisions would show that at some stage the statute talked of binding the petitioner to the time frame mentioned in the terms and conditions of the sale agreement and at some other stage to the declaration regarding the same.

The order by the Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh comes on a bunch of nearly 70 petitions. The order would be applicable to cases in which orders passed by RERA tribunal and authority are under challenge before the Division Bench.

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