Mumbai: Consumer Body Wants Housing Project De-registration on Hold

Mumbai: Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP), an association of consumer rights, has written to the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) suggesting it to seek a legal opinion of Attorney General of India with regards to de-registration of 107 real estate projects as the regulator doesn’t have powers to permit delisting of projects and the process should be kept on hold.

“…it is our considered opinion that the Parliament has thoughtfully not provided any powers under RERA Act to the Hon'ble Authority to de-register any project on any grounds, although the Authority is empowered under section 7 of RERA to revoke the registration for various default by the Promoters. In fact, even the MahaRERA Authority has admitted this in its order dated September 2, 2022. Unfortunately, after admitting such absence of power under RERA Act, the Authority has assumed to itself the power of de-registration with a view to break the deadlock. We are afraid that assuming such power by the MahaRERA Authority is inconsistent in letter and spirit of RERA Act,” reads the letter addressed to Dr Vasant Prabhu, Secretary, MahaRERA.

Chairman MGP requests to refer matter to the Attorney General of India

The MGP has opposed de-registration of the 107 projects because it allows the defaulting promoters to evade the penalty of 5% of the project cost as mandated under the RERA Act.

Chairman MGP, Shirish Deshpande, argued that “Since RERA Act does not expressly empower RERA Authority to de-register any Real Estate Project, we humbly request to refer this matter to the Attorney General of India to seek his legal opinion on this very important legal issue. In the meantime, our request is to kindly put on hold the decision to entertain any applications for deregistration of any real estate project registered with MahaRERA.”