News: Don't allow dilution of RERA being 'custodian' of law, advisory council to housing ministry-09-05-2022
The minutes of the meeting of the CAC has now been put in the public domain at a time when the Supreme Court has set the May 15 timeline for Centre and states to submit all details of the rules by them and to submit whether these are in accordance with the Central rules.
NEW DELHI: The housing ministry must ensure that there is no dilution of the real estate law, RERA being the “custodian” of the Act, the Central Advisory Council (CAC) headed by Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri has decided, according to the minutes of the Council’s last meeting.
The minutes of the meeting of the CAC has now been put in the public domain at a time when the Supreme Court has set the May 15 timeline for Centre and states to submit all details of the rules by them and to submit whether these are in accordance with the Central rules. Last time the housing ministry had submitted dilutions by states only with regard to the builder-buyer agreements.
The minutes said, Puri while chairing the meeting made an observation on "dilution of RERA by some states in their rules framed under RERA”. Homebuyers’ representative in the council, Abhay Upadhyay had also flagged the dilutions. “The Council observed that, being the custodian of RERA, this ministry has to aim for non-dilution of RERA,” the minutes said.
However, what had surprised the homebuyers groups was that the details that the housing ministry had placed before the Supreme Court barely four days after this CAC. The status report on the compliance of the earlier SC direction submitted by the Centre shows that the ministry had sought details of only “agreement for sale”, commonly known as “builder-buyer agreement”, from states.
The court had sought the details of both the “builder-buyer” agreements and the rules framed by the states under RERA. What’s more glaring is that even on March 12, barely hours after Puri’s direction to ministry officials to put everything before the apex court in “black and white”, his ministry had sent a reminder to the states seeking details of only the “agreement to sale” framed by states and to submit a comparison of their rules with the one notified by the Centre. So, the states that gave details confined themselves to only “agreement for sale” rules and did not give details of their own RERA Rules.
