August 18, 2023: The Supreme Court (SC) has recently issued notices to the chief secretaries of Nagaland, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Union Territory of Ladakh to give their responses on the lack of establishment of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) in their states. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti also asked the chief secretaries of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and West Bengal and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to file their response on the current situation as these states have only passed the interim orders to notify the Rera.
The SC said that affidavits shall be filed by the concerned chief secretaries indicating the progress made with regard to enforcement and implementation of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, within a period of 60 days from the date of service of this order. With these observations, the court relisted the matter again in January 2024.
Additional solicitor general has also submitted a chart titled ‘Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 [RERA]- Implementation Progress Report’. As per this chart, all the States/UTs have notified rules under Rera except Nagaland, which is in the process of notifying the rules. 32 States/UTs have established Rera. Ladakh, Meghalaya and Sikkim have notified rules but are yet to set up the authority while 28 states/UTs have set up Real Estate Appellate Tribunals. The chart shows that Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and West Bengal are in the process of setting Rera up.
Regulatory authorities of 30 states/UTs have made their websites operational under the provisions of Rera. However, the process of website operationalisation is still underway in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. The chart also states that 1,09,308 real estate projects and 77,704 real estate agents have registered under Rera across the country. The chart states that 1,11,222 complaints have been disposed of by the real estate regulatory authorities across the country.
