Even after over 4 years of RER&D Act of 2016 UT of J&K has RERA only in the name of a ‘Website’
DAYA SAGAR
Even after landing in an era of ‘good governance’ through e governance UT of J&K is still without a regular operating Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA). Government of India had been receiving complaints from the individual flat/apartment / plot buyers that real estate transactions were going on unequal footings more in favour of/ to the choice of developers / promoters and aiming at creating environment for equitable and fair transactions between the seller and the buyer of properties to ensure real estate purchases secure through enforcement of transparency and accountability Government of India introduced a bill in Rajya Sabha ( passed on the 10 March, 2016) which was also passed by Lok Sabha on the 15 March, 2016 and came in force on 1 May 2016 in the form of THE REAL ESTATE (REGULATION AND DEVELOPMENT) ACT, 2016, Act No : 16 of 2016 where Section-20 Sub Section-1 lays down that The appropriate Government shall, within a period of one year from the date of coming into force of this Act, by notification, establish an Authority to be known as the Real Estate Regulatory Authority to exercise the powers conferred on it and to perform the functions assigned to it under this Act. But J&K UT real estate buyers are still on the mercy of sellers even nearly 8 years after the enactment of RERA Act 2016 since when one ventures to visit the J&K RERA website (https://rera.jk.gov.in ) there is no reference to the Chairman RERA and two Members there on it; not even there is no any reference of postal address; no doubt two landline numbers are mentioned as Jammu: 0191-2571609 Srinagar: 0194-2506024 but there is no any e-mail ID even when we are in era of e governance.. When attempted contact RERA on 18 Dec 2023 there appeared a link support-jkrera[at]jk[dot]gov[dot]in but when tried the link no page did open.
Helpless buyers of apartments in J&K had hoped of some relief when after 5 years of enactment of RERA Act 2016 it was reported in 2021 that J&K Government had initiated the process for constituting a regular Real Estate (Regulation And Development) Authority (RERA) in terms of Real Estate (Regulation And Development) Act 2016 and it was in August 2022 that J&K Government vide S.O 357 of 01-08-2022 appointed Parimal Rai IAS ( Retd) in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 22 of Real Estate( Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 as Chairperson of Jammu & Kashmir Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) laying down that the appointment to have effect from the date he takes charge of the post in the authority. It was hoped that regular RERA would be constituted for regular operation soon after that but no any notification was issued about appointment of atleast two more members of the Authority (Section- 21 of the act) and it was still nowhere in public domain whether RERA had become operational and from where it was operating .The affected parties ( buyers of apartments/ flats etc from promoters/ Companies/ Cooperative societies /Corporations ) were not able to ‘locate’ / know the window where they could submit their demands/ proposals / grievances and whether authority had started operating under Parimal Rai IAS or not even after quarries initiated by the writer in December 2022 for not functional ‘website’ of J&K RERA via email to JK Housing and Urban Department ( hudd-jk@nic.in, dheerajjk@gmail.com, Cc: housingudd9@gmail.com) on 10-12-2022 / reminder request on 14-12-2022 .
It was only after quarry was made on JK Grievance cell (awazaawam.uniso.in/ AwazAAwam/index.aspx) on 16-12-2022 G. No 999001268968 / on 02-01-2023 G No 999003861258 /on 27-04-2023 GN0 999001268975 / on 30-04-2023 G No 999003867993 about status of J&K Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) / joining of Sh. Parimal Rai IAS ( Retd) as Chairman of RERA that on 25 May 2023 the JK Grievance portal finally disclosed the present status with the reference of Housing and Urban Development Department as (” Vide Notification No 357 dated 01.08.2022 Mr. Primal Rai, IAS (Retd) was appointed as Chairman RERA. However, because of some personal reasons the Officer submitted his resignation which was accepted by the authorities and from the date of resignation of the Chairman RERA the Authority is headless, therefore the authority is not functional as on date. As regards operationalize of the authority it is submitted that only web portal of the Authority is being handled by the J&K Housing Board and rest of the functionality of the authority is not being handled by any of the authorities/ organizations”.
The status of RERA could be observed from the RERA site ( https://rera.jk.gov.in/ ) on 25 Dec 2023 about delivery of services to beneficiaries like for registered agents ( https://rera.jk.gov.in/admincontrol/registered_agents/1) site says no data available , click projects registered (https://rera.jk.gov.in/view_project/search_project) no data, click for registered advocate list ( https://rera.jk.gov.in/view_project/search_project) it says no data available in table, click on complaint with Authority (https://rera.jk.gov.in/comlaintants_details/index/UA==/MQ==) it says page not working and like . Yes about RERA the page does say “The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 is an Act of the Parliament of India which seeks to protect home-buyers as well as help boost investments in the real estate industry. The Act came into force in J&K from “16th December 2018″ by virtue of SRO-123 Dated-22-02-2019”.
Question is who will compensate the apartment buyers of the losses they would have suffered at the hands of the promoters of estates due to denial of the protections like 5 year quarrantee against manufacturing / construction defects to be shouldered by the promoters.
True J&K State did not immediately enact her own RERA in 2016 and it was only after 2 years that in 2018 the then J&K State Administrative Council too had approved the Real Estate (REGULATION AND DEVELOPMENT) Act , Governor’s Act No LIII of 2018 notified on 16-12-2018 which had almost similar provisions as in Act No 16 of 2016 of Parliament but no any RERA was put in place even upto the day the J&K state was reorganised into UTs of J&K & Ladakh when under the provisions of the J&K Reorganization Act 2019, the J&K RER&D Act of 2018 was repealed and THE REAL ESTATE (REGULATION AND DEVELOPMENT) AC, 2016, Act No:16 of 2016 became applicable for UT of J&K.
The Section 84(1) of the RER&D Act of 2016 confers powers on the Governments of States and Union Territories to frame Rules to carry out the implementation of law and The Administrative Council of UT of J&K under the chairmanship of G.C. Murmu LG framed J&K Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2020 which were notified by the Housing and J&K Urban Development Department on in July , 2020 under the provisions of RER&D Act, 2016. It was then hoped that atleast in 2020 a regular Real Estate Regulatory Authority would be installed in J&K for regulation of the real estate sector and securing the interests of the buyers of lands/ apartments viz. viz real estate promotors in the public / private / co- operative /Self Financed Co-operative Sector but that appears to have not happened even nearly 4 years after August 2019. Even after over 4 years of that UT of J&K has RERA only in the name of website .
(The author is a senior journalist and analyst of J&K Affairs).