The West Bengal government finally made its opening move by notifying the rules and regulations to regulate the real estate sector under section 84 of the RERA Act 2016. Following the state, RERA rules West Bengal put their first step of RERA implementation. Although, being a latecomer there is a lot to cover.
In May, finally, the Supreme Court objected to the absence of WB RERA rules commencing with the RERA Act 2016. Further, the Supreme Court added that the West Bengal distinct real estate regulation isn’t acceptable and repugnant to the Real Estate Act 2016 and was termed as an unconstitutional one. Followed by this, the state government took an initiative to the said words and notified their RERA Rules to the authority.
The state government issued the notification about the rules and named them as West Bengal Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Rules, 2021. The officials further added that the rules will come into force from the day they will be published on the official portal.
Welcoming this long-awaited move, Hardeep Singh Pur (Minister of housing and urban affairs) tweeted, “RERA brought in a semblance of order in a sector unregulated till 2016. It was fiercely contested both, from within and outside. Finally cleared by Hon’ble Bombay HC in 2017. Thanks to Hon’ble SC, RERA rules have also been notified in West Bengal. We now have One Nation One RERA.”
Unlike other states, West Bengal was the only state that was declining the implication of RERA rules across the state. Before the infusion of WB RERA, the state-owned West Bengal Housing & Industrial Regulation Act 2017 (WB-HIRA) for the regularization of the real estate sector. It came into force from 2017 onwards.
After waiting for almost a year, the Supreme Court passed a verdict that West Bengal Government implemented a parallel regime i.e. WBHIRA rather than RERA and it is entirely unconstitutional. In the 190-page verdict, the DY Chandrachud and MR Shah (justice) said, “We have come to the conclusion that WB-HIRA is repugnant to the RERA and is, hence, unconstitutional.”
Concluding, the state government put in place the latest West Bengal RERA rules, to boost the interests of buyers and to promote real estate sector investments.
