The Haryana-Real Estate Regulatory Authority (H-Rera), Gurugram, has established a mediation forum for the amicable resolution of disputes between real estate developers and homebuyers. The authority said that alternate dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms like arbitration, mediation, and conciliation are much more private, economical and time-saving than litigation. As such, the regulatory authority felt the need to promote such mechanisms in the real estate sector, which has seen a huge pendency of cases due to homebuyers approaching the authority for grievance redressal.
An official spokesperson of H-Rera said that over the years, the authority has brought to the forefront a multitude of cases relating to homebuyer’s dissatisfaction in dealing with real estate developers and service providers.
“H-Rera, Gurugram, has therefore decided to adopt mediation as an ADR mechanism for dispute resolution in real estate matters and has set up a fully dedicated mediation centre/forum for the same”, the spokesperson said, adding that the mediation forum will provide the parties with an option to have a settlement outside the formal proceedings of authority.
The authority has constituted a panel of mediators, equipped with the requisite skills to mediate in real estate disputes. There shall be two types of cases that shall fall under the ambit of mediation forum: Firstly applications made for mediation at pre-filing of formal complaint stage that shall be taken up by grievance redressal cell and the chief public relations officer of H-Rera, Gurugram, Dr. Deepa Malik on an individual basis. The second type of cases are the complaints referred by the authority to the district and session judge and adjudicating officer of H-Rera, S.C. Goel (retd), relating to the provisions of Section 89 of CPC.
The spokesperson said that in case the authority is convinced that a particular complaint case can be resolved through mediation then such references can be made by the authority even without the consent of the parties. The cases to be heard by adjudicating officer shall be taken up bulk, which means that 15 to 20 cases per day shall be received, he said, adding that such complaints which are already pending before the authority may be referred to the panel of mediators headed by the adjudicating officer at any stage and at any time during the proceedings of the court. To start with, 310 complaints against one developer that are pending before the authority have been referred for mediation.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
