Ever since the judgment of NCDRC (National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission) judgment of Class Action Suit against Maharashtra builder Tirupati Balaji Builder home buyers have got a new hope.
What is Class Action Suit? How is it different from home buyers’ collectively filed cases?
More importantly, have the harassed home buyers finally got a legal tool to safeguard their interests?
I am Ravi Sinha and ever since the judgment, I am flooded with queries on the same. Various home buyers’ associations are sending me video clips of the media reports on the same. Of course, they do have a new hope and hence this optimism.
What is Class Action Suit?
Class Action Suit is a common case where the petitioners come together to file a joint case and are referred as “Class”. The condition here is that all the petitioners seek common relief. In legal terms, the case is advertised for the “class” to join, if they are aggrieved. In the case against Tirupati Balaji Builder, the NCDRC has granted refund with interest to all 232 home buyers as the project was not delivered.
In India, Class Action Suit came into public discussion after a group of petitioners used this legal route against cheating with gold, and the court ordered compulsory Hallmark stamp.
It is different from other jointly filed cases in the sense that in other collective cases the petitioners can seek different relief. For example, some of the buyers could seek delay penalty while others could seek refund. So, in the final judgment while some elements will be same, it will not be a common order.
The question that everyone is asking whether the NCDRD judgment will it change the ground realities and check erring builders. Unfortunately, the innocent home buyers are into what could be best described as premature celebration. Every such judgment is celebrated in a housing market where not much is left to celebrate.
Before you celebrate the NCDRC judgment on Class Action Suit against the builder, ask yourself:
Is it that easy for the buyers to move collectively when builder is trying to divide the buyers?
Won’t it be possible only when the builder has deserted the project?
Is nature of real estate such that everyone needs similar relief?
Most important, is Class Action Suit a quick justice window?
You will get your answer. I don’t need to say anything.
Does it mean we don’t need Class Action Suit? Definitely not! But unless there is a fast-track court any relief is a case of justice delayed, if not denied. The case in question was filed way back in 2016.
I only have more questions than answers on behalf of the home buyers.
Ravi Sinha
#RaviTrack2Media
Ravi Sinha is a journalist with over two decades of cross-discipline media exposure. He is the CEO of real estate thinktank group Track2Realty. He has been writing extensively on the real estate sector for more than a decade now. Evaluation of real estate brand performance is his core domain expertise and he has immense insight into consumers’ psychograph. He has conceptualised Track2Realty BrandXReport as India’s 1st & only objective & non-paid brand rating journal that is industry-accepted benchmark of brand equity & ranking of the Indian real estate companies.
Track2Realty is an independent media group managed by a consortium of journalists. Starting as the first e-newspaper in the Indian real estate sector in 2011, the group has today evolved as a think-tank on the sector with specialized research reports and rating & ranking. We are editorially independent and free from commercial bias and/or influenced by investors or shareholders. Our editorial team has no clash of interest in practicing high quality journalism that is free, frank & fearless.
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