Media Release
Mumbai, Nov 5: The Bombay Catholic Sabha Unit of Mount Carmel’s Parish Bandra (W), organised an informative and engaging workshop on the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act 2016 which was open to all parishes of the Bandra Deanery.
The guest speaker was advocate Anil Dsouza, LLB, MA, MBA, Ppartner at Advent Advocates LLP and the current secretary for the Bar Association of the Maha RERA and the Maha REAT (Appellate Tribunal). Close to 200 parishioners attended the workshop.
The programme was well structured around The RERA Act 2016. It is a Central Government Act and hence no state government can dilute any of its provisions. Advocate Dsouza explored the huge positive implication of such a priceless statute for Consumers (flat / land / shop / office purchasers etc.). The Maharashtra government was the first to set the ball rolling and the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority and the Appellate Tribunal was established in the state in 2017 itself. Even in its nascent stage, the Maha RERA, through its several judgments, has made a deep and significant impact on the real estate industry. The MahaRERA is not only a quasi- judicial institution, but also play the important role of a Regulator where it seeks to strike a balance between all stake holders especially the Builder/Developer and the flat – purchasers. Based in Bandra East East, its central location comes as a huge boon for Mumbaikars. In any case, Mumbai (and Delhi) sees the maximum Real estate activity, hence this Act is invaluable to us. The crux of the session was on flat purchasers who have registered agreements, but with possession dates ranging from 1- 15 years ago, and no sight of possession of their homes on the horizon. The key sections of the RERA Act 2016 was explored well where several important judgements, within the specific Sections were shared.
The second part of the workshop was on the functioning of the Maha RERA (Authority) and the Maha REAT (Appellate Tribunal), its structure, framework and its approach to litigants. It was an interesting academic part, as Adv. Dsouza interwove the workshop with several landmark judgements of the Bombay High Court, The Maha RERA and the Maha REAT, esp. the Neelkamal Realtors vs Union of India case, the Lavassa Corp vs Jitendra Tulsiani case on leased property and the Suresh Swamy vs LNT case where the complainant approached Maha RERA even after the project received the occupation certificate.
The last part of the session was an animated Q & A, where the participants asked several pertinent questions regarding re-development of society, also on projects still un-registered with the Maha RERA, timelines on Final Order and its execution, refund, compensation and interest on amount paid to the builder etc. Advocate Dsouza answered each question with facts and figures and relevant judgements and recent events with media coverage references. There were several light- hearted moments as well, when interesting case- laws were discussed. It was encouraging to note that there were many lawyers too as participants in the audience, who lent positive support to the house.
Advent Advocates LLP is located at Andheri East and conducts these workshops regularly across several parishes pro-bono as a social initiative and purely to empower the society with information and knowledge which they believe should be shared by all. They can be contacted on anil.mumbai@gmail.com for parish-level workshops.