NEW DELHI, Aug 17: The Supreme Court of India has flayed Meghalaya and a few other state governments and union territories for not implementing Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in their states/UTs and has directed the chief secretaries of the states to file affidavits indicating the progress with regard to the enforcement and implementation of the law within two months.
Accordingly, the apex court has issued notice to the governments of Meghalaya, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and West Bengal, and the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh over their failure to establish regulatory authorities as well as appellate tribunals under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016.
The Bench further issued notice to the Nagaland government, which is the only state yet to notify the rules under the Act. The directions were issued on a miscellaneous application in a disposed of writ petition regarding the availability of RERA as a parallel remedy for homebuyers.
In 2019, while upholding the 2018 amendments made to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in 2018 to treat homebuyers as financial creditors, the apex court had directed all states/UTs to appoint permanent adjudicating officers, besides establishing permanent regulatory authorities and appellate tribunals under the RERA.
The bench consisting of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice SVN Bhatti sought responses from non-complying states/UTs as the order was passed on August 11 after taking on record a progress report of implementation across the country submitted by Additional Solicitor-General for India Balbir Singh.
The erring states have to file their affidavits and the matter was listed for further hearing in January 2024.
RERA is an Act of the Parliament which seeks to protect home-buyers as well as help boost investments in the real estate industry.
