Mumbai: MahaRERA lawyers seek new administrator to clear backlogs quickly

With over 4000 cases pending before MahaRERA and two out of its three members including the chairman retiring or having retired litigants and lawyers practising at the regulatory body feel that the new head would have to be a strong administrator who not only clears backlogs quickly but also ensures that orders are executed by developers and builders According to sources at MahaRERA former chief secretary Ajoy Mehta and present chief secretary Sanjay Kumar are in the race for the top postGautam Chaterjee who was the chairman of MahaRERA retired on January 19 while BD Kapadnis a key member of the threemember body will be retiring on March 5 This means that by next month two out of the three posts will be vacantChartered Accountant Ramesh Prabhu also founder chairman of MahaSEWA Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association said that the responsibility of hearing cases will now fall upon Dr Vijay Satbir Singh who is also the acting chairman ldquoThe vacuum needs to be filled at the earliest because there are about 4000 cases pendingrdquoPrabhu said that while ldquoChatterjee was a good administrator the litigants were not happy as most of his orders would be challenged at the tribunalrdquo ldquoThe same would be either set aside or the tribunal would pass a revised order Also the developers and builders would not take the MahaRERA orders seriously and instead of implementing the order by refunding or paying interest to the litigants most of them would go on an appeal to either the tribunal or Bombay High Court and even the apex courtrdquoAdvocate Anil Drsquosouza secretary MahaRERA Bar Association feels that only a ldquovisionaryrdquo can tackle the current backlog at MahaRERA ldquoA simple calculation says that the body is now operating at 50 per cent of its bench strength There are several issues that MahaRERA needs to take cognisance of one of which is the delay in the first hearing date of every matter Since the number of cases has exponentially increased more benches are needed for speedy adjudication of mattersrdquoPrabhu said that Mehta former BMC commissioner who is currently advisor to CM Uddhav Thackeray and Kumar are likely contenders for the new post ldquoBoth Mehta and Kumar have strong on ground experience While Mehta was always known as a successful administrator who had formulated the new Development Control and Promotional Regulations DCPR 2034 Kumar was the Additional Chief Secretary Housing during whose tenure the MahaRERA was introduced under the central RERA Actrdquo If appointed Mehta 61 would hold the position for four years as the retirement age is 65 years Kumar on the other hand would have a full term of five yearsldquoUnfortunately MahaRERA has failed in coming up with any drastic policy decision change which would have otherwise brought in proactive changes in the real estate industry We must understand that no one is interested in litigation the need of the hour was to find solutions to the problems faced by both litigants and developers and pass orders which never got implemented depriving justice to the litigantsrdquo said PrabhuAdvocate Godfrey Pimenta who practices at RERA said ldquoI have appeared in over 400 complaints before MahaRERA since its inception and the fact is that thousands of cases are still pending and not a single hearing has happened in the last one year We can understand that the lockdown and subsequent time needed in setting up of infrastructure for carrying out online petitions is leading to delays But if work doesnrsquot spill over to the weekends for a few months at least this disturbing trend will continuerdquo He suggests that MahaRERA bring all cases against a single developerbuilder under few different categories and club them as a single case and pass a common order instead of looking at individual casesPimenta further added that till before the lockdown the MahaRERA chairman and two of the members were operating from three different officesmdashSRA Building in Bandra East BKC and Churchgate He feels that all three members should operate from a single place ldquoThis would be in the interest of a large number of litigants and professionals who are made to run from one office to another making it physically impossible to be at two offices at the same timerdquoAdvocate Nilesh Gala who also practices at MahaRERA said ldquoWe are expecting the new chairman to keep the functioning of the regulatory body more transparent and also expedite hearing of the complaints Some of the cases have been pending for years together If they cannot be heard within 60 days the purpose of introducing the RERA Act will be futilerdquo