CUTTACK: Applying the Odisha Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 2011 to real estate transactions is a ‘circuitous proceeding’, the Orissa High Court has said, advocating application of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 to such cases.
“This Court laments to note that the provisions of the Real Estate Act, which despite being a well-thought-out code by itself, is not being resorted to. Instead, such circuitous proceedings (OPID Act) are being resorted which is neither to the benefit of home buyers nor to the real estate sector at large,” Justice SK Panigrahi said.
The observation came while granting bail to an accused, the managing director of BN Infra Services Pvt. Ltd, in an alleged housing fraud case registered under the OPID Act.
“The instant case is a classic example of a transaction gone awry which has been strenuously given the colour of a criminal offence,” Justice Panigrahi said, observing that, “the object of the OPID Act was never intended to apply to real estate transactions and doing so is nothing but misplaced or misadventures experimentation with the Act.”
“The provisions of the Real Estate Act, in fact, provide for umpteen fail-safe mechanisms to prevent most of the maladies associated with such cases,” Justice Panigrahi said, asking the State Government to give wide publicity to the provisions of the Act “to enable the lay and laity to seek refuge under appropriate law.”