A home buyer has the legal right to approach 3 platforms at the same time for his/her grievance redressal. He/She can raise his/her complaint in consumer forum, RERA authorities and if need be in National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) simultaneously.
Punjab & Haryana High Court recently in the case of Experion Developers Pvt Ltd vs State of Haryana and others has observed that a homebuyer while fighting a case in a consumer forum can also pursue remedies under Real Estate Regulatory Authority as well.
A division bench of Justices Dr S Muralidhar and Avneesh Jhangan held that it is not mandatory that a pending matter in front of consumer forum has to be transferred to adjudicating officer of RERA. Senior Partner and Chairman of Aureus Law Partners, Niki Kantawala says “ The same is beneficial for a lot of stranded homebuyers whose money is stuck at the developer’s end and are waiting year-by-year for their lawful possession. This would help in getting a faster remedy.”
Time and again our judiciary has reiterated that legal remedies available to home buyers under Consumer Protection Act and RERA are concurrent. In the past, the Delhi High Court in September 2019 , rejected 62 petitions filed by various developers arguing that buyers can’t sue them at multiple forums. But Delhi High Court ruled in favour of home buyers and supported the stand that aggrieved can approach both at the same time.
When RERA was freshly implemented, RERA chiefs of various state had a view that buyer should not be allowed to approach consumer forum when an existing real estate law is in effect.
In fact, even Supreme Court in 2019 in Pioneer Urban Land & Infrastructure Ltd Vs Union of India case had held that “remedies given to the allottee of flat/apartment are concurrent, and such allottees are in a position to avail remedies under CPA, RERA as well as trigger the provision of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.”
Courts have made it clear that remedies to a consumer run parallel to each other and do not interject each other so that one is not deprived of any recourse. This question is raised again and again because of Section 71(1) of the RERA act. But SC had clarified that Sec 71(1) gives an option to withdraw from consumer fora to go before RERA but this is in addition to Section 88 which states that provision of the Act are “in addition to, and not in derogation of the provisions of any other law for the time being in force.”
Distinguishing the role of AO under RERA Act and the role of other authorities, the bench of Punjab & Haryana has clarified that the scope of relief with AO(under RERA) would be limited to compensation or interest. The bench has held that –
“If, however, such person opts to withdraw his complaint before the consumer fora to come to the AO, the scope of the relief he seeks would be limited to the compensation or interest. He will, therefore, have to take a conscious decision. If the relief he is seeking in the complaint before the consumer fora is in addition to seeking compensation or interest in the form of compensation, for instance refund of the amount and interest thereon, then he will have to take a conscious decision on restricting his relief before the AO to one of compensation or interest by way of compensation.”
So its upto the buyer what is the remedy that he wants, senior lawyer Niki Kantawala explains, “ Thus the consumer can go to all the three forums i.e Consumer Court, under RERA or the NCLT. However the nature of reliefs has to be different. So to say, that if the Consumer is seeking a relief of refund of money paid, then, the consumer should go to either the Consumer Court or the NCLT. However, if the consumer is only seeking of compensation and penalty etc for delay- then RERA would be the right Forum. The consumer can complain in NCLT too simultaneously. However, it would be ideal in cases where the buyer is keen to exit the project.”
