The Orissa High Court on Friday ordered to ‘keep in abeyance’ a direction issued by the Odisha Real Estate Regulatory Authority (ORERA) on September 28. The court is hearing a writ petition filed by a Bhubaneswar-based apartment owner, Bimalendu Pradhan, challenging the Odisha Apartment Ownership (Amendment)
Rules, 2021, which mandate formation of Associations of Allottees registered under the Societies Registration (SR) Act.
Notably, when it was brought to the court’s notice during the hearing of the matter on September 27 that the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) has restricted registration of Associations of Allottees under the SR Act, the State Government informed the court that it is contemplating to table a fresh Bill in the Assembly soon framing a new set of Rules for the apartment owners.
But on Friday, it was brought to the court’s notice that after the September 27 hearing, the ORERA on the night of September 28 brought out a notification stating that the promoters and allottees shall form an Associations of Allottees as required under the RERD Act, which may be registered under the SR Act. “This creates further confusion as IGR in a letter on Jan 12, 2021 has clearly restricted formation of such associations and it does not fall under the definition of ‘Association’ as given under Section 2 (o) of the Act,” argued petitioner’s advocate Mohit Agarwal.
Listing the matter to be heard again on October 12, a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar directed that till next date, the ORERA notification of September