Tribunal upholds RERA penalty of Rs 20 lakh on realtor

Guwahati: The Assam Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (REAT) dismissed an appeal filed by a builder against a judgment delivered by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), Assam.

In this case, RERA had imposed a penalty of Rs 20 lakh on the builder for not registering his project consisting of 252 flats. As per Sub-Section (1) of Section 3 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, a builder cannot advertise, market, book, sell or offer for sale any plot, apartment or building in any real estate project without first registering the project with RERA.

As per the builder’s admission, the construction commenced on April 3, 2018, and out of the proposed 252 flats, as many as 106 persons had already made advance payments amounting to Rs 14 crore. The builder did this without first registering the project and violated Sub-Section (1) of Section 3 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016.

The builder argued before the Tribunal that the project was entangled in various civil suits with landowners since 2018 and its fate was uncertain. Rejecting the argument as utterly irrelevant and misconceived, the Tribunal observed that mere pendency of civil suits cannot act as a legal bar on complying with the statutory provisions of Section 3 of the Act.

Dismissing the appeal, the Assam REAT asked the builder to deposit the entire amount with the Assam RERA within three weeks. 
The order was passed by Justice (Retd.) Manojit Bhuyan, Chairperson and Onkar Kedia, Member, Assam REAT. The full text of the order is available at reat.assam.gov.in, the official website of the Tribunal.

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