CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing to February 7 on a PIL seeking intervention against Odisha Real Estate Regulatory Authority (ORERA) sending orders to the civil court expressing its inability to execute the order by itself.
The disputes were mostly regarding the realisation of interest on money deposited in a case of delayed delivery of possession and handover of a flat to a consumer. ORERA had filed an affidavit stating it had no established mechanism like that of the civil court to take measures for the attachment of movable and immovable property.
In the affidavit, OERA secretary Bijay Kumar Prusty said a full-fledged Nizarat with adequate numbers of process servers is necessary for the purpose But the authority has no Nizarat and process servers, he said. “In view of complication of execution in those cases, it is felt beneficial for the decree holders to get the desired relief through the civil court which is equipped better to deal with such matters”, the ORERA secretary said in the affidavit.
The PIL was filed by Bimalendu Pradhan, a Bhubaneswar-based flat owner. Advocate Mohit Agarwal, arguing on behalf of the petitioner expressed concern that such stalemate frustrates the purpose of setting up an authority like ORERA.
However, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice MS Raman deferred hearing on the matter as the state counsel sought more time to file an affidavit. The court had on September 15, 2022, directed both ORERA and state government to come up with some concrete solutions on affidavit as to how the process of execution of the orders of the ORERA can be made effective by the ORERA itself instead of sending matters to the civil court. The petition had alleged that the authority had not acted upon a single case filed before it since its inception in 2017.