RERA: Registration Of Real Estate Projects- A Brief Overview

The real estate sector has been one of the top-most contributors to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment creation. Surprisingly, inspite of being such an important part of the economy, the real estate sector was unregulated for numerous years. In order to regulate the aforesaid unorganized sector, the Indian Parliament passed a legislation called as The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 ("RERA") which was made effective on May 1, 2016.

A batch of writ petitions was filed by real estate developers and individual plot owners in the Bombay High Court. They claimed that RERA is unconstitutional as its state-wise implementation and appointing state-level authority is arbitrary. They also challenged Section 3 of the RERA which mandates developers to register their new and ongoing real estate projects.