Gurgaon: Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Hrera) has brought relief to a couple, while imposing a penalty on a developer for delaying possession of a flat — over two years — in Sector 106.In an order dated July 17, HRera chairman Arun Kumar directed Godrej Real View Developers to pay interest at 10.8% per annum to the Dwarka-based homebuyers — Madhu Chhabra and Pradip Chhabra — for delay in giving possession of the flat in Godrej Meridien on Dwarka Expressway corridor.The Authority rejected Godrej Real View’s force majeure defence built around Covid-19 and construction bans. A force majeure defence is a legal claim that relieves a party from its contractual obligations when an unforeseeable, unavoidable, and extraordinary event beyond its control makes it impossible to perform the contract.HRera has directed Godrej Real View to pay accrued interest for the delay period from the due date to the date of offer of possession, plus two additional months granted to the allottees to arrange logistics, within 90 days.The HRera chairman held that Godrej Real View breached Section 11(4)(a) of RERA Act by failing to hand over possession of unit T3-2001 by the contractually agreed due date of Sept 30, 2023.The complainants, who had booked the 137.9 sq mtr apartment for Rs 1.9 crore in Oct 2021 and paid over Rs 1.8 crore against it, were offered possession only on Jan 12 after the developer secured an occupation certificate for Tower 3 on Sept 30, 2024.Godrej Real View had argued that Covid-19 lockdowns, labour shortages, GRAP-linked construction bans and various court-ordered curbs on construction activity in NCR region justified extending the completion timeline, and cited an HRera circular automatically extending registration validity by six months for projects affected by the pandemic.The authority dismissed this defence, noting the allotment letter and agreement for sale were both executed in late 2021 — well after Covid’s disruptive phase — making the developer ineligible for any pandemic-linked grace period.It observed that periodic pollution- and labour-related construction bans “are events happening every year” that a developer of Godrej’s scale ought to have factored into project planning.Applying Rule 15 of Haryana RERA Rules, 2017, the authority pegged the prescribed interest rate at SBI’s marginal cost of lending rate plus 2%, working out to 10.8% based on the current MCLR (marginal cost of funds-based lending rate) of 8.8%.This rate will apply symmetrically — the same 10.8% will be charged to the complainants on any delayed instalments owed to the developer, in line with Section 2(za) of the Act.The developer must also issue a revised statement of account adjusting these delayed possession charges within 30 days, hand over physical possession and execute a registered conveyance deed within 90 days after the complainants pay applicable stamp duty and administrative charges capped at Rs 15,000.The order clarifies that the developer cannot levy any charge outside the terms of the Dec 2021 agreement for sale.The authority declined to independently adjudicate the couple’s claims for compensation over tax liability arising from TDS deduction on rebate amounts and mental agony, holding — per Supreme Court’s ruling in Newtech Promoters and Developers v State of UP — that such compensation claims fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the RERA adjudicating officer, granting the complainants leave to pursue that relief separately.
