1.      Heard Mr. Abhinav Ramakrishna, Advocate, for the complainants and Mr. Prabhakar Tiwari, Advocate, for the opposite party.

2.      Amarjit Sidhu and Paramjit Sidhu (complainants-1 and 1-A) filed aforementioned complaint under Section-12(1) (c) of Consumer Protection Act, 1986, for directing the opposite party (hereinafter referred to as the builder) (i) to complete the construction work of the entire project ‘Parsvnath City’ including the flat of complainants-1 and 1-A and handover possession of the flats to each buyer, complete in all respect, with all amenities within stipulated time, (ii) to pay interest @18% per annum on the amount deposited by the buyers for the period of delay in handing over possession of the flats, (iii) to pay Rs.2/- lacs as the costs of the litigation and (iv) any other relief, which is deemed fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case. This Commission, vide order dated 03.01.2018, granted permission under Section-12(1) (c) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 and granted leave to sue in representative capacity, in respect of such allottees of residential flats/houses in the project, who are interested in taking possession of their respective flats along with delayed compensation and have not approached this Commission.

3.      The facts, as stated in the complaint and emerged from the documents, are that the builder was a company, engaged in the business of development and construction of residential and commercial buildings and selling its unit to the prospective buyers. In the year 2009, the builder launched a project of group housing in the name of “Parsvnath City” at village Dharuhera, district Rewari, Haryana. This township consist different categories of residential units i.e. (i) Parsvnath Elite Floors, (ii) Parsvnath Pleasant, (iii) Parsvnath Elite Villas and (iv) Plots. On coming to know about this project, complainants-1 and 1-A visited the office and site of the builder and discussed about the project. Complainants-1 and 1-A booked a 3BHK flat (super built area 1775 sq.ft, basic sale price Rs.1817500/-), in Parsvnath Elite Floors on 06.10.2009 and gave two cheques of Rs.61750/- and Rs.190000/- respectively and Flat No. A-230-G was allotted to them. Complainants-1 and 1-A opted for “Construction Linked Payment Plan”. Flat Buyer Agreement was executed on 16.11.2009. As per demand notices, complainants-1 and 1-A deposited Rs.61750/- on 06.10.2009, Rs.190000/- on 06.10.2009, Rs.111750/- on 16.11.2009, Rs.142470/- on 03.09.2010, Rs.100000/- on 03.09.2010, Rs.25000/- 03.09.2010, Rs.187366/- on 07.03.2015 and Rs.203560/- on 05.02.2016 and Rs.203333/- on 06.09.2017 (total Rs.1210234/-). After filing of the complaint, Complainants-1 and 1-A deposited some instalments and total Rs.1413000/- was deposited. As per clause-9 (a) of the agreement, the construction has to be completed in 24 months from the commencement of the construction, with grace period of 6 months. The construction commenced on 03.02.2010 and due date of possession was 03.08.2012. Complainants-1 and 1-A paid about 77% of total sale price. Complainants-1 and 1-A visited the site time to time and found that the construction was not near to completion. Then they filed this complaint on 27.03.2017, complaining deficiency in service. 

4.      The builder filed its written reply on 19.06.2017, in which, material facts have not been denied. It has been stated that the real estate industries were facing problems of (i) Lack of adequate source of finance, (ii) shortage of labour due to MNREGA & JNURM, schemes (iii) rising of costs of materials and manpower, (iv) delay in grant of various approval by the government departments, (v) Recession in economy, (vi) extreme shortage of water in the region and (vii) shortage of bricks due to restrictions imposed by Ministry of Environment and Forest on brick kilns. Due to global slowdown of economy, Foreign Direct Investment, in real estate has been substantially reduced. Due to the aforesaid reasons, the construction work of the project has been delayed. The buyers instead of supporting the builder are filing litigations. The builder at their level are trying to complete the project. The builder has completed development of 93 plots, 10 villas and 30 floors and delivered possession to the buyers. This complaint under Section 12(1) (c) of the Act, is not maintainable inasmuch as the project consisted different schemes, for them the services are different and there is no commonality and the complaint is liable to be dismissed. Under the agreement, the builder has undertaken its liability to give delayed compensation to the buyers.  

5.      On publication of notice in the newspapers, various allottees filed the applications for their impleadment as the complainants time to time. These applications were allowed time to time with the condition that the persons sought to be impleaded must be interested in all the reliefs sought in the complaint. Various complainants filed their Affidavit of Evidence. The builder filed Affidavit of Evidence of Madan Dogra. The complainants have filed their short synopsis.

6.        After hearing the arguments and reserving for the judgment, Surender Singh Verma, Surender Singh Yadav, Suman Yadav, Rakesh Kumar Bhat, Sunita Bhat, Amitesh Mishra, Om Prakash Patel, Virender Dalal and Ms. Monika Khanna @ Monika Rana, jointly filed Interim Application No. 1146 of 2022; Mukesh Kumar Sharma, Gurinder Singh Gulati, Surinder Kaur and Navneet Gulati, jointly filed Interim Application No. 1147 of 2022; Hemant Kumar, Manju Rani, Arun Chauhan, Pawan Yadav, Vijay Sharma and Sharmila Sharma jointly filed Interim Application No. 1148 of 2022, Anjana Bhowmick, Aditi Bhowmick, Tapas Bhowmick & Anjana Bhowmick, Harveen Juneja, Amit Juneja, Amit Juneja and Harveen Juneja jointly filed Interim Application No. 1149 of 2022, for direction to the builder to refund the amount as deposited by them. Although, none of these applicants have mentioned the number of their impleadment application, the date of allowing the impleadment application and the serial number of the complainant, on which their names have placed but as the impleadment applications have been allowed on the condition that the persons sought to be impleaded must be interested in all the reliefs sought in the complaint. As such, different relief cannot be granted to some of the complainants. Interim Application Nos. 1146/2022, IA/1147/2022, IA/1148/2022 & IA/1149/2022 are rejected.

7.      I have considered the arguments of the counsel for the parties and examined the record. There is no factual controversy between the parties that the complainants booked/allotted the floor/villa/plots/pleasant, in the project Parsvnath City, in the year 2009-2010. Flat Buyer Agreements were executed in the year 2009-2010, in favour of the complainants. As per clause-9 (a) of the agreement, the construction has to be completed in 24 months from the commencement of the construction, with grace period of 6 months. The construction commenced on 03.02.2010 and due date of possession was 03.08.2012, including the grace period. The complainants deposited substantial amount of sale price, as per demand notices issued to them. The builder did not take plea that any of the complainant was defaulter in payment of the instalments.

8.      As the complainants pressed the relief for possession at the time of arguments, I asked the counsel for the builder as to how much further time would be taken in completion of the project. The counsel, on the basis of instruction from the builder, informed that at least 18 months would be taken in completion of the project. The builder in the written reply and Affidavit of Evidence has stated that they were taking all the steps to complete the construction and hand over possession. As the Flat Buyer Agreements were executed in the year 2009-2010, as such one year further time would be sufficient for completing the project as initially they had promised to complete the project within 30 months (including grace period of six months).

O R D E R

In view of aforesaid discussions the complaint is allowed. The opposite party is directed to complete the project “Parsvnath City” at village Dharuhera, district Rewari, Haryana within a period of one year from the date of this judgment and offer possession to the complainants along with delayed compensation in the shape of  interest @ 6% per annum, from the date of promised possession and the deposits, which were made after date of promised possession, from the date of such deposits made by the complainants till the date of offer of possession and according to other terms and conditions of the agreement. In the meantime, the builder will be entitled to realize the amount of instalments as and when it will become due according to the payment plan.