THE Supreme Court on Monday told the Centre that it does not favour individual State Governments to have a builder-buyer agreement, and rather prefers a national-level model agreement, to deter builders from fleecing unwitting home buyers. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant said, if the Central Government can engage with the Central Advisory Council (CAC) under Real Estate Regulation and Development Act (RERA) to create a national model on builder-buyer agreement, then it would act as a deterrent for builder from fleecing unwitting home buyers. Emphasising that this is an important issue, Justice Chandrachud told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre: Consider it in broader public interest.

 

We want a central national model for States to implement.” Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, representing petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay, submitted Sections 41 and 42 of RERA, provides enough room for Central Government, however the Union, it has filed a reply that they don’t have a role. She added that under Section 41 and 42, a Central Advisory Committee is set up and the Centre works along with it to implement rules, however the Centre has said, the agreement is in the domain of the State Governments.

 

Justice Chandrachud observed that this agreement cannot be left to the individual State Governments and pointed out that the court had struck down West Bengal’s law on regulating the real estate sector - where it had said it was unconstitutional as the State’s statute encroached upon RERA. He further emphasised that some essential terms should be there, over which there should not be any negotiation - which is essential to protect the interest of home buyers. The top court scheduled the matter for further hearing after two weeks and asked Mehta to urge the Centre to consider a uniform builder-buyer agreement at the Central level.