BENGALURU: Admonishing authorities for issuing occupancy certificates (OCs) recklessly by being hand-in-glove with developers in many cases without adhering to the law, the High Court directed the state government to issue guidelines to Rural Development and Panchayat Raj and Urban Development departments, empowered to grant the OC.
The guidelines should indicate that erring officers will have to face inquiry or criminal cases for issuing OCs contrary to law, it said. “The authorities shall inspect the property, satisfy themselves whether OC can be issued in terms of law, and only then issue such OC, failing which officers who handle such files would be solely responsible and accountable for the issuance of illegal OCs,” it said.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order, while dismissing a petition filed by Ozone Urbana Infra Developers Pvt Ltd. He also declared that ‘Serene Urbana’, a project of the petitioner, was an ‘ongoing project’ as on July 10, 2017, the date on which the Rules came into force directing it to register before the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA).
It said the petitioner projected that the project is not ongoing which is a suppression of facts. The records demonstrated that the petitioner played fraud with the Kannamangala Gram Panchayat in securing OC.
The petitioner moved the court questioning the order dated July 5, 2023, passed by the K-RERA, rejecting its application against the complaint registered by the Serene Urbana Apartment Owners’ Welfare Association for delay in handing over homes, developed for the retired in Devanahalli taluk.
The project, which started in 2013, was to be completed in 2017. Even before completion, the Gram Panchayat issued the OC and the Association filed a complaint with K-RERA, claiming relief. The petitioner filed an application contending that it need not register the project before K-RERA, which was rejected.
Referring to the plight of retired people who have invested money in the project and home buyers in general, the court said the developers are dodging home buyers as could be gathered from the mushrooming of cases before K-RERA and this court.
The developers should bear in mind, particularly those projects which involve retirement homes or homes for senior citizens, that they should not make these citizens run from pillar to post to secure accommodation after having paid a substantial amount. It is necessary to bear in mind that ‘retired people should not be made to re-tire themselves’, the court said.