CUTTACK: The Odisha High Court has till next week adjourned hearing on a PIL seeking intervention against Odisha Real Estate Regulatory Authority (ORERA) sending its orders imposing penalty to the civil courts for execution.
The petition was filed by Bhubaneswar-based flat owner Bimalendu Pradhan who alleged that in the process, recovery of the penalty has been negligible.
Expressing disapproval over forwarding of such cases to civil courts for initiation of certificate proceedings for dues’ recovery in favour of home buyers, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice BR Sarangi and Justice MS Raman on Friday sought a fresh response from ORERA on the issue.
ORERA, as a practice sends cases to the district authority (collector), who in turn distributes the cases in favour of certificate officers/ courts under his control for realization of the dues.
The hearing was deferred after taking note of an affidavit in which ORERA secretary Bijay Kumar Prusty had stated that Rs 19.87 crore was imposed as penalty in 153 cases of which only Rs 40 lakh has been realized. While advocate Bibhu Prasad Tripathy appeared on behalf of ORERA, advocate Mohit Agarwal represented the petitioner.
Steps are being taken to expedite the process of realization of money by correspondence with revenue authorities who are provided with power to recover them, ORERA stated in the affidavit.
Earlier in another affidavit, ORERA had claimed that its orders were being sent to district authorities as it was unable to execute them by itself since there is no established mechanism like that of the civil court to recover dues or penalties. While a full-fledged Nizarat with adequate numbers of process servers is necessary, the authority has no Nizarat and process server.
The civil courts are well equipped to enforce an order through the process of its court. Creating parallel infrastructure in ORERA for execution of orders will be an unnecessary burden on the state exchequer.
Hence, it is fully correct and lawful on the part of ORERA to send its orders to the civil court for execution within the local limits of whose jurisdiction the project is located or the person against whom the order is being issued actually resides, ORERA had further contended.