SC asks Bombay HC to expeditiously decide pleas challenging RERA validity

New Delhi: Supreme Court on Monday asked Bombay High Court to expeditiously decide pleas challenging validity of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA).

The apex court also asked other High Courts, where pleas against validity of RERA are pending, to await the decision of Bombay High Court.

At the outset of the hearing, as Attorney General K.K. Venugopal addressed the court, Justice Mishra asked why not ask one of the high courts to gather all the petitions and decide on the matter instead of making every one to travel to Delhi.

"We feel it would be appropriate to direct the Bombay High Court to take up the matter along with other connected matters pending there...Let a considered decision on this plea be taken as expeditiously as possible," the bench also comprising Justice M M Shantanagoudar said.

Attorney General K K Venugopal told the court that many petitions have been filed in the high courts of Bombay, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh challenging the provisions of RERA and it would be appropriate if all these matters are decided either by the apex court or one of the high courts.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had agreed to hear the Centre’s petition seeking transfer of various pleas, which are challenging validity of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) and are pending in different high courts, to the Delhi High Court.

The government mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and said that 21 petitions challenging the validity of the Act are pending in various high courts across the country.

The Centre told the bench, also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, that these petitions pending before different high courts should be transferred to the Delhi High Court for adjudication of these matters.

The bench agreed to hear the Centre’s plea and fixed it for hearing on September 4.

The central Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) came into effect on May 1, 2017, a year after it was passed by Parliament.

As per the Act, developers, projects and agents had till July 31 to mandatorily register their projects with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority. Any unregistered project would be deemed to be unauthorised by the regulator.

Under RERA each state and UT will have its own Regulatory Authority (RA) which will frame regulations and rules as per the Act.

RERA covers both new project launches and on-going projects where the completion/occupation certificate has not been received.

RERA makes it obligatory on the part of the builders not to book, sell or offer for sale, or invite persons to purchase any plot, apartment of building, as the case may be, in any real estate project without registering the real estate project with the authority.