In a first, Centre to discuss consumer grievance on real estate sector

In a first, the Centre is set to discuss consumer grievances in the real estate sector with stakeholders and consumer commissions in Mumbai, the financial capital of India.

The meeting is scheduled on April 18, which would be in the form of a round table on “How to effectively redress the grievances pertaining to the Real Estate Sector”.

The discussions are being organised by the Government of India’s Department of Consumer Affairs and the Maharashtra Government.

Pertinently, the real estate cases comprise around 10% of the total cases in Consumer Commissions.

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So far, since inception, 2,30,517 cases have been filed by the consumers in various consumer commissions, 1,76,895 cases have been disposed of till now and 53,622 cases are pending.

“Despite separate tribunals such as RERA and NCLT to deal with the cases pertaining to the housing sector, the pendency of cases is rising in various consumer commissions. It is for the first time, a large-scale conference to redress the consumer grievance in the real estate sector,” official sources said on Monday.

Some key areas that will be covered in the conference will be systemic policy interventions required to reduce litigation in the housing sector. In this regard, the cases filed in the consumer commissions would be analysed and major factors that result in consumer cases will be identified and presented for deliberations.

In addition, why more cases are filed before consumer commissions despite the existence of a separate authority such as RERA for specifically dealing the cases pertaining to the housing sector will also be discussed.

Meanwhile, deliberation on how to ensure that the Housing Sector cases are dealt in an effective and speedy manner will also be done.

Notably, disposal of pending cases through the National Lok Adalat held on 12 November, 2022 and “Grahak Madhyasthata Samadhan” on 16 December 2022, by the States/District Consumer Commissions reported exemplary outcome.

Also, the department earlier organised a round table conference on Consumer and the Insurance Sector to facilitate stakeholder consultation on insurance cases in consumer commissions.

“The Department of Consumer Affairs is continuously working towards reducing the pendency of cases in the Consumer Commissions so as to protect the interest of the consumers and reach the goal set by the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. In respect of this department organized many campaigns to reduce the pendency in the consumer commissions and have addressed the issue multiple times,” officials said.