Nearly two decades after paying for two flats that were never handed over, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Jalandhar, has directed a Noida-based private realty firm, Shourya Towers Pvt Ltd, to refund Rs 41.97 lakh to a city resident along with interest, holding the builder guilty of deficiency in service and unfair trade practice.
According to complainant’s counsel Jatinder Arora, Randeep Singh Chatha of Urban Estate had booked two 1,565 sq ft flats in the company’s Shourya Greens project near the Amritsar Bypass. He paid the entire sale consideration in instalments but was repeatedly assured of possession without any firm timeline.
According to the case record, after failing to deliver the possession of the originally allotted flats despite receiving the full sale consideration, the builder offered the complainant alternative flats through email communications and said a revised allotment would be finalised from the available inventory.
However, these assurances never materialised into actual possession. The proposed alternative flats were also a part of the Shourya Greens Apartments, which subsequently stalled and remained incomplete.
Consequently, neither the original flat nor the alternative unit was delivered, leaving the complainant without the promised property.
The builder contested the complaint, arguing that the dispute fell within civil jurisdiction and should be addressed through RERA or arbitration provisions in the buyer agreement. The commission rejected these objections, observing that remedies under consumer law operate independently.
After examining the evidence, the commission concluded that the builder had retained the complainant’s money for years without delivering possession, which amounted to a clear deficiency in service. It also observed that a home buyer cannot be made to wait indefinitely after paying the entire amount for a residential unit.
In its order, the commission directed the company to refund Rs 20.98 lakh for each flat along with 9 per cent annual interest from the dates of deposit. It also awarded Rs 30,000 as compensation for mental harassment and Rs 10,000 towards litigation costs per flat.
