Whether Complaints Against Unregistered Projects Are Maintainable Under RERA?

With the advent of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 ("Act") there is now a central piece of legislation governing the rights and obligations of all participants in the real estate industry. However various real estate regulatory authorities have encountered an overwhelming majority of complaints regarding real estate projects which were already in existence when the Act was brought into force. Such pre-existing projects brought with them various rights and liabilities created under contract, as well as the local laws, and therefore it became important to understand the interplay of rights and obligations set forth under the Act. There were various complaints filed by allottees in respect of projects which were not registered under the Act, and this issue came up before the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority ("MahaRERA") in the case of M/s Rukmini Beverage Private Limited versus M/s Shreeniwas Cotton Mills Limited and Others. ¹