City developer slapped with ₹5 lakh fine for failure to hand over apartment

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Consumers Disputes Redressal Commission has directed a city-based developer to return ₹56.46lakh and pay a compensation of ₹5lakh to a buyer for failing to handover an apartment. The presiding judicial member of the commission, K Baskaran, has ordered Jeayam Shelters Private Limited to return the money with 12% interest.

The order is passed on a complaint filed by S Ravindran and his wife Mangalam Ravindran from Kodambakkam that they have paid a sum of ₹56.46lakh for a flat at Vandalur. As per the construction agreement entered on May 13, 2011, the developer should complete the construction and handover the flat within 12months including a grace period of three months.

 Having come to the conclusion that the developer could not complete the project and obtain the completion certificate, the complainants sent a notice to the builder informing him about exiting from the project.

In the order, which was delivered in December but the order copy was dispatched last week, the judicial member said the developer had to handover the flat on May 12, 2012 as per the promised date. It is on record that even up to the date of filing of the complaint (May 27, 2015), the developer could not complete the construction, he added. "The complainant has prayed for direction to the developer to repay ₹56,46,106, which was paid by them to the developer together with interest at the rate of 12% from the date of payment till realisation and a sum of ₹5 lakh towards compensation for the mental agony and hardship suffered by them and ₹10,000 towards cost of complaint. We hold that complainants are entitled to get the same,” the judicial member.

B Sampath Kumar, chairman of Jeayam Shelters Private Limited, was unavailable for comment.