RERA not anti-builder: Govt informs court

Mumbai: Arguments in the ongoing RERA case at Bombay high court continued on Tuesday with the intervenors, including buyers and NGOs, countering pleas of the petitioning builders. Following the arguments, counsel for the Centre and state informed the HC that the RERA Act was not anti-builders as there was a provision for them to register with the RERA authority if they started projects entirely with their own funds.

A division bench of justices Naresh Patil and Rajesh Ketkar was hearing various petitions filed by developers challenging the RERA Act, and intervention applications supporting the Act.

On Tuesday, the court started hearing submissions of intervenors who pointed out that the Act did not infringe upon the rights of promoters and in fact, only aimed at ensuring that money paid by buyers was not misused by promoters and that projects were completed on time. Senior counsel Shiraz Rustomjee appeared on behalf of NGO, Forum for People's Collective Efforts (FPCE), which is intervening on behalf of all buyers across the country.

Advocate Tanveer Nizam, who appeared on behalf of redevelopment project-affected persons from Jacob Circle while supporting RERA, informed the court that the Act did not have any provision for rehabilitation of redevelopment project-affected people and hence, the same should be included in the Act.

While replying to objections of builders, counsels for the Centre and state as well as the Amicus Curiae cited section 3 (2) (c) of the Act which reads, "No registration of the real estate project is required where… for the purpose of renovation or repair or re-development which does not involve marketing, advertising, selling or new allotment of any apartment, plot or building, as the case may be, under the real estate project."

The counsels said that after receiving the completion and occupation certificate, the promoter would be required to register only for the sake of marketing, advertising or selling.