The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine an important issue of framing a “model builder-buyer agreement” to avoid deliberate delay and exploitation of flat buyers by real estate developers.
"Uniform builder-buyer agreement is required to be framed by the Centre to protect interests of lakhs of home buyers. This is an important issue on protection of buyers, often put on backfoot by clauses in agreements made by builders," a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and B V Nagarathna said.
The top court issued notice to the Centre on a batch of PILs filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and others.
The petitioners, led by senior advocate Vikas Singh and Menaka Guruswamy, contended under the Real Estate and Regulatory Authority Act, 2016, that there should be a model agreement for states to adopt and the Centre was enjoined to frame such a policy on the subject.
Agreeing to the submission, the bench said, "It is an important issue of consumer protection and builders can't get away by putting any clause".
The court sought a reply from the Union government in the matter.
The petitioners submitted that a model agreement was required to ensure transparency, and fairness and to restrain builders and agents from indulging in unfair and restrictive trade practices.
Passing the order, the bench said the plea raised the grievance that in the absence of model agreement, flat purchasers are left at the mercy of developers, regarding the terms and conditions.
The bench said once the model buyer-builder agreement is framed by the Centre, then it may direct the state governments to follow it.
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