Criticising the Real Estate Regulatory Authority for what it described as a pro-builder bias, the Supreme Court of India recently held that the regulator might as well be abolished, observing that the very people it was meant to protect are “completely depressed, disgusted and disappointed.”
The remarks were made by a Bench comprising Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which stayed the Himachal Pradesh High Court’s December 30 order and permitted the state government to relocate the RERA office from Shimla to Dharamsala.
“All states should now think of the people for whom the institution of RERA was created. Except for facilitating builders in default, it’s not doing anything else. Better abolish this institution, we don’t mind that,” CJI Kant said.
“It’s high time that all the states should revisit and rethink of even constituting this authority,” the Bench said while hearing an appeal filed by the Himachal Pradesh Government against the high court’s order staying the state government’s June 2025 notification to relocate the state RERA office.
Issuing notice on the state’s plea, the Bench clarified that any relief granted would be subject to the final outcome of the case. The state government argued that the decision to relocate the RERA office was taken solely to ease congestion in Shimla and was driven by administrative considerations.
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court of India had also set aside a stay imposed by the Himachal Pradesh High Court on the state’s move to shift the Himachal Pradesh State Commission for Backward Classes from Shimla to Dharamsala, observing that such policy decisions are ordinarily not amenable to judicial review.
On behalf of HP Government, senior counsel Madhavi Divan said, “This is about the RERA which we seek to shift to Dharamsala”. The state’s Advocate General submitted that as per a policy decision, the state was developing Palampur, Dharamsala and other cities.
Website designed, developed and maintained by webexy