The Supreme Court on Monday directed Advocate Devashish Bharuka to assist the Court in the plea seeking direction to the Central Government, to frame a ‘Model Builder Buyer Agreement’ and ‘Model Agent Buyer Agreement’.
A Bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant also sought the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India to assess whether the rules adopted by the Central Government deviate from the rules notified by the states in regard to the Model Builder Buyer Agreement.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati submitted that the statutory rules have been framed and placed before the bench for the Union Territories.
Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy, representing the petitioners, stated that there has to be a minimum set of guidelines for the protection of consumers.
The bench, however, suggested Guruswamy to draft a minimum that is required.
The Top Court told the Union government to ascertain if the rules were adopted by the states with regard to the model builder-buyer agreement recommended by it.
A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, saying that neither any Model Builder Buyer Agreement nor Model Agent Buyer Agreement have been enforced by any state. The petition wants directions for such implementation.
The petition claims that the states should “enforce (the) ‘Model Builder Buyer Agreement’ & ‘Model Agent Buyer Agreement’” and should “take steps to avoid mental physical and financial injury, ensure accountability, develop mechanisms to weed-out criminal conspiracy for wrongful gain, criminal breach of trust and dishonest misappropriation of buyers’ money, committed by Promoters, Builders and Agents”.
The petitioner has also requested the court to “pass appropriate direction(s) to compensate the buyers for losses incurred due to inordinate delays on the part of Promoters-Builders and to recover their hard earned money…”
The petitioner states that the states
“were required to enforce RERA Act in letter and spirit but they failed to do so within due date. It was expected that the States would meet the second deadline of July 31, 2017, but they failed again.”
The Supreme Court on January 17 this year, emphasised on the need of “model builder-buyer and agent-buyer” agreements with uniform terms and conditions for sale and purchase of residential flats.