Supreme Court panel to inspect MoS Rathore’s Gurgaon flat

Apex court had earlier directed Parsvnath to hand over the flat to him.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed a two-member lawyers’ panel to inspect the facilities at the flat of minister of state Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (Retd) in Parsvnath Developers’ Exotica project in Gurgaon, after he claimed it was “uninhabitable”.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy formed the lawyers’ committee after Col. Rathore’s counsel complained about the flat, which the apex court had earlier directed the real estate firm to be handed over to him.

The court directed the committee to submit its report in two weeks and look into the allegations made by the minister. The counsel for Col. Rathore said the flat which was allotted to him did not have access to common facilities of the project as was shown in the site map at the time of booking.

While the tower in which the flat is located had a ‘kachcha’ access road which opened into a slum cluster, there was no parking facility provided and the tower did not have an occupancy certificate, he said.

The counsel for the builder said if Col. Rathore had so much problems, he could take a refund, adding that the flat was in a good condition and work at the project site was going on. Col. Rathore’s counsel said they did not want refund as they have contested for so long to get the flat and urged the court that another flat be given to him in the tower which has the occupancy certificate.

The court, however, said it cannot be done as Col. Rathore had booked a flat of his own choice. “The members of the committee will go and inspect what is the shortest and longest route to common facilities which everyone is getting. It will also look into the allegations of parking facilities, kachcha road etc,” the bench said.

The bench asked Col. Rathore to first occupy the flat and get a roof for himself, after which it will look into the aspect of compensation. The court appointed advocates Gaurav Aggarwal and Shankar Narayan as members of the committee and posted the matter for November 29. It also asked the parties to cooperate with the committee. Col. Rathore had booked a flat in Parsvnath’s Exotica project in Gurgaon in 2006 and paid around Rs 70 lakh for it. The firm was to deliver the flat in 2008-09. In January this year, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission had directed the builder to refund the principal amount with interest and compensation to Col. Rathore. The apex court had on October 21 directed Parsvnath Developers to hand over possession of a flat in its Gurgaon project to Rathore in two days saying he should not pay any more amount to the developer.