BENGALURU: Though the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA) has announced the formation of Lok Adalats to dispose of cases, home buyers are still sceptical of the decision. Further, the Karnataka Home Buyers Forum has invited suggestions for a public interest litigation (PIL). K-RERA, on Wednesday, announced that it will organise Lok Adalats, under the guidance of the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority (KSLSA).
According to a notification released by K-RERA, the move has been done to take care of cases related to refunds, compensation, delay compensation, permissible execution proceedings in disposed- of cases and other litigation filed under the RERA Act 2016 and K-RERA Act 2017. However, while this will prove to be a major improvement for home buyers, they are sceptical on how this will change the already filed cases. “This is a very good development and we are hoping that it will help us.
However, I hope this doesn’t add more red tape to the issue where we will have to file complaints again to the Lok Adalats to get some relief,” said Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar, a forum member. Further, Dhananjaya said that the forum will draft a PIL in the Karnataka High Court regarding the different issues they had faced for years and the functioning of RERA.
In the PIL, the forum has so far asked for the court to direct RERA to complete investigations with transparency, implement a digital redressal system and to stop sanctioning projects to fraudulent builders among other prayers. Further, the PIL asked for FIRs to be filed against builders and investigated timely as well as the lower courts not to impose injunctions on home buyers preventing them from speaking to the media on issues they had been facing regarding fraudulent builders.
The forum has invited suggestions and prayers from home buyers who have faced issues. “Since it is a PIL, we are happy to take up the suggestions of any and all home buyers who have run into problems with builders and who have been unable to get any kind of relief,” said Dhananjaya. The suggestions can be mailed to karnatakahomebuyersforum@ gmail.com. The forum has stated that the deadline to submit suggestions is February 16.