July 10, 2024: The Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA), Gurugram, has imposed a penalty of Rs 5 crore on real estate promoter Vatika for not registering its project within the deadline and violating Section 3 (1) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016.
Vatika has obtained a licence for its residential project Vatika India Next in 2013 from the town and country planning (TCP) department of Haryana. The promoter had to apply for RERA registration within three months of the notification of the RERA Act in Haryana, in 2017. However, Vatika applied for RERA registration only after HRERA took a suo motu action based on a notification by the Haryana government in 2022.
Media reports mention that Arun Kumar, chairman, HRERA Gurugram, said, “It was an ongoing project, and the promoter should have applied for the RERA registration well on time to avoid penalties. HRERA registration is mandatory for all on-going real estate projects where competition certificates were not issued before the Act coming into force in 2016.”
What does Section 3(1) of the RERA Act say?
According to Section 3 (1) of the Act 2016, no promoter shall advertise, market, book, sell or offer for sale or invite persons to purchase in any manner any plot, apartment, or building, as the case may be, in any real estate project or part of it, in any planning area, without registering the real estate project with the Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority established under the Act. Thereafter, once the promoter submits all the mandatory approvals for the project’s registration, the authority approves the registration of the project.
According to media reports, a Vatika Group spokesperson said ,“Due to the development of NH-352 W passing through our project and lack of information from GDMA regarding the road alignments, we could not finalise our services estimates which is mandatorily required by HRERA to process the registration. We have complied with HRERA’s imposition of the penalty and will always abide by whatever is deemed fit by the regulators with utmost respect and humility”.
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