Punjab and Haryana HC Halts Punjab Govt’s Takeover of Rera, Real Estate News, ET RealEstate
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed the Punjab govt’s decision to take over the Real Estate Regulation Authority (Rera) considering its “very sensitive functions in the state” that include building permissions and dealing with complaints against the builders.
The division bench of acting chief justice G S Sandhawalia and justice Lapita Benerji passed these orders on the public-interest petition of Keerti Sandhu and another party. However, the orders will not preclude the selection process for Rera’s office-bearers, while efforts will be made to complete it quickly. The next hearing is on April 18.
The petitioner claimed that Rera Punjab had been superseded by the impugned order of March 12 for four months or till the quorum is complete under Section 82 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. The ground given in the superseding order was that one of the members had retired on January 5 and the chairman had resigned on February 7.
The only remaining member, Rakesh Kumar Goyal, is on leave of absence from March 10 to June 6 but is claimed to have given his no objection on March 11 in response to a March 9 notice under Section 82 of the Act.
Punjab advocate general Gurminder Singh defended the state’s action on the grounds that the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections was coming into force when a large number of cases and regulatory applications were pending before Rera.
He argued that that the state had followed a proper procedure in issuing the requisite notice to the concerned and passed the order considering only the exigency. The advocate general also objected to the petitioners’ locus as well as their writ petition’s maintainability as PIL.
