Mumbai: The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has dismissed the plea of a builder --Marathon Nexzone Avior-1 at Kolke village in Panvel -- who had raised an objection against the authority on deciding and adjudicating the claim for refund to homebuyers over "lack of jurisdiction".
The builder contended that the order passed on August 31 last year is not legal and sustainable. Besides, only the adjudicating officer has the exclusive jurisdiction to entertain an application under Section 18 of the RER Act, and the authority does not have powers to entertain such applications.
However, MahaRERA, delivering a major blow to the builder on August this year ruled, "Processing the claim of a refund with interest involves a simple exercise of calculation.
ln such cases, since only the refund of the amount with interest is claimed without asking for any compensation, no adjudication of typical nature of facts is involved to mandate the jurisdiction of a adjudicating officer.
ln fact, such claims under section 18 are not in the nature of compensation, which requires deeper inquiry and adjudication as provided under Section 72 of the RER Act. Moreover, the earlier order passed does not suffer from any illegality and unsustainablity."
The case is related to homebuyers named Neha Dixit and Ranveer Sharma who purchased flats in Marathon Nexzone Avior-1, a housing project of Sanvo Resorts Pvt Ltd. Since the builder failed to allot possession of their flats as per the sale agreement, they approached MahaRERA.
Apart from seeking a refund of Rs 28.97 lakh with interest, they also sought a refund of all statutory dues and taxes, including stamp duty, services tax and value-added tax payments.
