New Delhi (03.01.2021): Even though RERA authorities in states, as well as Union Territories, claim to have disposed of the multitudes of complaints lodged under the RERA Act since its promulgation in 2016, the suffering of home buyers is far from over. The disposal of cases that RERA authorities claim and pat themselves for is nothing but the passing of orders that seldom culminate in implementation on the ground. So the grievances continue to multiply making a mockery of the so-called disposal procedures.

Why does this sorry state of affairs prevail?

It is because regulatory bodies fail to take any suo-motu or pro-active stance as they are content in being merely agencies that churn out orders and notices that evoke no fear among defaulting developers.

As a matter of fact, the Act empowers RERA to impose penalties, and get its orders executed as arrears of land revenue. Intriguingly, a penalty to the tune of 10% of the project cost is seldom invoked against developers who defy RERA orders. This encourages developers to continue with their cheating practices.

Further, as per the provisions of Section 40 of the Act, if a promoter fails to pay any interest or penalty or compensation imposed by the RERA authority, it can be recovered from such promoter as arrears of land revenue. For this, RERA issues a recovery certificate (RC) to the jurisdictional district or revenue collector or magistrate.

After issuance of RC, if a developer fails to pay the dues, the company’s, as well as the promoters’ personal assets, can be attached to recover the payable dues. But the authorities lack the will to exercise their own powers. That’s why they drag their feet about securing RCs from the erring builders. Of thousands of RCs issued in the four years of RERA, only an abysmally small percentage is actually realized by respective RERA authorities.

Here the alibi often given by RERA authorities is that its mandate is to ensure completion of real estate projects and RCs fall under the purview of district authorities who can make the recovery by liquidating the assets of the developer but that involves a cumbersome process.

However, it is not that the Act does not have the provision to ensure compliance with RERA orders. The authority can very well seek compliance reports from the district collector on the enforcement progress of the recovery certificate. What it simply needs to do is to follow up vigorously with collectors post-issuance of recovery certificates.

But as RERA authorities are mostly unwilling to use their own authority, consumers have to run from pillar to post in the faint hope of recovery. Ultimately, as RCs mostly remain unexecuted, they have no option but to wage a longer battle: to approach high courts by filing a writ for seeking appropriate directions for the statutory authorities to act to recover their dues. But given the pendency in HCs, it turns out to be an agonizingly long wait for justice.

The bottom line is that if justice has to be delivered to real estate consumers only through courts, why have RERA as a remedy for the ills of the real estate sector?

(By Vishal Duggal & Rakesh Ranjan))