09 , September , 2022
In a major development, the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) has ordered the directors of the Raheja Developers Limited (RDL) to appear in person before the court due to non-compliance of authority’s orders.
During the next hearing, RDL will have to explain to the bench what actions the promoter so far has initiated to address the pending grievances of the residents living at Raheja Atharva residential group housing society, Sector 109, Gurugram.
Raheja Atharva is a newly built society where 400-plus families are currently residing. In a very short span of time, the building's construction quality has come into question, becoming a serious concern for the residents. This comes after the resident’s welfare association (RWA) of Raheja Atharva had approached the Authority in October 2021 and, along with many other grievances, the association demanded structural audit of all the towers only for safety purpose.
Post a major roof collapse incident of Chintels society on February 10 this year, which created panic situation among the people living in privately built-up societies, Atharva occupants want structural audit of the building at the earliest.
On the first date of hearing on 1 October 2021, the RERA court had directed the RDL to file its reply, and it has been followed by four subsequent hearings since then on 2nd February, 21st April, 24th May and 2 September 2022. The court observed continued non-compliance its court order by the respondent RDL. Keeping anguish of the RWA in view, the court issued summon to respondent RDL calling its directors to appear in person on the next hearing scheduled to take place on 4th October.
While issuing the order, RERA chairman Dr KK Khandelwal said, "Every order of the authority is to be implemented as if it is the decree of the civil court. This order directing the promoter to appear before the authority on the next date of hearing on October 4 be treated as a decree of civil court and any disobedience of this order will attract civil imprisonment."
The Authority, during the last hearing, also had made a reference to the district town and country planning (DTCP) department to conduct structural audit of the project, but it did not receive any status report on it from DTCP; hence, it issued a reminder to DTCP to conduct the structural audit in reference to latest guidelines framed by town and country planning (T&CP) department and to take necessary action.
The counsel of the RDL earlier had requested for adjournment to file written reply that was allowed with specific directions to file it within two weeks that it failed.
"Despite proper service of notice, the respondent Raheja Developers repeatedly failed to comply with the order of the authority by not filing written reply within the time allowed on any occasion," the orders said.
(WITH INPUTS TAKEN FROM IANS)
