Delhi HC: Home buyers can raise their issues to both RERA as well as the NCDRC.

By Abhay Shah, Realty Quarter

In a critical decision, Delhi High Court ruled that homebuyers can approach both the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) and Rera as their jurisdictions are “concurrent” with wandering builders.

The court said that litigation under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 can be initiated against developers by homebuyers (or property allocators in proposed real estate development projects) even after the 2016 Real Estate (Development and Regulation) Act, frequently referred as Rera, has been enacted.

In the process, Justice Prateek Jalan rejected a set of petitions filed by 62 builders and developers across the national capital region seeking compensation, stating that once a homebuyer moved RERA, the complaint pending against them previously before the customer commission could not be heard and had to be withdrawn.

The real estate companies asserted that, under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, a homebuyer had no option and could only seek relief from Rera or a customer commission. They argued that since Rera itself provides an allottee with a choice to cancel pending CPA proceedings, the same must be followed in cases lodged elsewhere after Rera went into effect.

However, HC refused the argument and retained an NCDRC judgment stating that the remedies given under CPA and Rera are parallel and that Rera has not abolished the jurisdiction of the forums/commissions under CPA.

In this respect, Justice Jalan also mentioned a latest Supreme Court decision stressing that there was no room for confusion, reiterating that parallel cases against the builder could continue for the benefit of the homebuyer under both Rera and NCDRC. It said that the apex court had also reviewed the connection between proceedings under CPA and Rera.

The real estate companies, however, asserted that the SC decision on them was not binding as litigation before the SC was about options accessible to a homebuyer under Rera once a builder’s company became insolvent under the new Insolvency Code. But HC pointed out that “problems resulting from CPA proceedings have also been drawn to the supreme court’s attention.”