Landmark order by Gujarat High Court! This RERA PIL disposed of - Here is the reason

It's a landmark order by Gujarat High Court! The HC has disposed of the PIL wherein the petitioner urged for the appointment of members in RERA - Appellate Tribunal and necessary infrastructure for the same. PIL was filed by advocate and social activist Nipun Singhvi. Singhvi sought a declaration that the constitution of the Appellate Tribunal is 'Coram non-judice'. He had filed the PIL in December 2019 and further amended in January 2020 to challenge the advertisement of members appointment.

What bench said?

A bench headed by Hon’ble Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Hon’ble Justice JB Pardiwala urged that the appointment may be done at earliest and disposed of other application wherein similar request was made by the aggrieved litigants.

Section 45 of the RERA Act

As per Section 45 of the RERA Act, it is required that the Appellate Tribunal shall consist of a Chairperson and not less than two whole-time Members of which one shall be a judicial member and other shall be a technical.

What was the plea?

-His plea was that the permanent tribunal was not formed and also the legal requirement of two members was not met since the same was headed by single-member only.

-The government stated that they have completed the selection procedure of two judicial and two technical members for RERA-Appellate Tribunal. Appointment of President for Tribunal is under process in consultation with Chief Justice of High Court.

- Further, space of around 3000 sq ft has also been given to Tribunal to function with full infrastructure which was struggling for adequate space in of building managing two tribunals at one place.

Current status?

At present, the RERA tribunal was housed in Food Safety Tribunal with no separate staff and space of its own.

Who represented what?

The matter was represented by Advocates Vishal J Dave and Hiral U Mehta, who represented the petitioner.