CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Thursday expressed concern that sale deeds conveying common areas to the individual owners of apartments were getting registered by the builders on daily basis in violation of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) - RERA Act, 2016.
Accordingly, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattanaik directed the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) to strictly ensure that the sale deeds registered hereafter strictly abide by the RERA Act.
With the RERA Act mandating that transfer of common areas should only be transferred in favour of the Association of Apartment Owners, sale deeds presented for registration which contain contrary cannot be allowed to be registered by the IGR. "It should not be difficult therefore for the IGR to issue instructions in this regard to all the sub registrars," the bench said.
The court issued the interim order on a PIL, which a Bhubaneswar-based apartment owner Bimalendu Pradhan had filed challenging the validity of the Odisha Apartment Ownership (Amendment) Rules 2021 on the ground that it is contrary to provisions of the RERA Act, 2016.
Arguing on the petitioner’s behalf advocate Mohit Agarwal said grievance sought to be redressed in the petition relates to benefit all the consumers buying units in residential/commercial projects. Taking note of it, the bench observed that the central issue of the PIL is whether actual registration of sale deeds where sharing of common areas has been conveyed to individual owners and are inconsistent with the requirement of the RERA Act, can be legally sustained.
In such a situation "the RERA Act must prevail", the bench said while expressing confidence that the authorities will find a solution by reconciling the two statutory enactments - Odisha Apartment Ownership (Amendment) Rules 2021 and the RERA Act 2016.
Advocate General Ashok Kumar Parija, who was present during the hearing stated that the State government and Odisha Real Estate Regulatory Authority will sit together in the next one week to work out a solution to the problem.
The AG assured that the proceedings of such deliberations will be placed with an affidavit before the next date of hearing on June 22.