HC upholds nixing of Airoli flat over unpaid stamp duty
Mumbai, Sept. 27 -- The Bombay High Court has upheld a builder's decision to cancel the allotment of an Airoli flat after the prospective buyer failed to pay stamp duty and registration charges needed to complete the sale deed. Justice Sandeep Marne set aside orders passed by MahaRERA and its Appellate Tribunal directing JP Builders and Developers to complete the transaction and hand over the flat to buyer Santosh Sandhu.
The court found that Sandhu had not actually paid the stamp duty and registration charges to the authorities, despite claiming that he had deposited the money with a bank. The builder had cancelled the transaction on July 30, 2019, after Sandhu said he was unable to pay the charges because of financial difficulties.
The flat was originally booked by Nagendra Khartmol, who later transferred the allotment to Sandhu. The builder told the court that it was ready to execute the agreement for sale, but could not proceed because Sandhu had not made the payments required for registration.
Sandhu had approached MahaRERA claiming that he had deposited Rs.4.35 lakh towards stamp duty and Rs.30,000 towards registration charges at the Punjab National Bank branch in CBD Belapur. He also claimed that he had asked the builder to complete the registration by adding his mother's name to the document.
MahaRERA, in 2020, accepted Sandhu's complaint, set aside the cancellation and directed the builder to execute a registered sale deed and allot him a flat of his choice. The authority held that the allotment had been cancelled despite Sandhu having paid the stamp duty and registration charges.
The MahaRERA Appellate Tribunal later upheld the order and also awarded interest on the amount paid by Sandhu. The builder then approached the high court through advocate Rajesh Vanzara.
Advocate Vishal Kanade, appearing for the builder, said the company had remained ready to execute the agreement but the transaction could not be completed because Sandhu failed to pay the required charges. He said the builder cancelled the transaction after giving Sandhu sufficient time to make the payment.
The court held that the builder was "clearly justified in terminating the transaction" and set aside the orders of MahaRERA and the Appellate Tribunal....
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