Heavy Penalty by CCI likely to have Serious Ramifications on the Real Estate Industry
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in its order observed that DLF, which has market dominance, had abused its powers, building Belaire without getting no-objection certificates (NOCs) or seeking clearance from the state for changes that were made to its original plans. The director general, who conducted a thorough probe of allegations, had found that originally the project was conceived with 19 floors. The DG had submitted that the red herring prospectus of May 2007, filed with the SEBI stated, “The Belaire is expected to be completed in fiscal 2010 and consisting of 364 residential units with approximately 1.3 million square feet of saleable space in five blocks of 19 to 20 floors each.”
However, DG found that this norm was revised mid-way and the consumers were not told about this till October-December 2007. And when this issue was raised, only a hint of possible increase in floors was given to one of the allottees.
According to the Belaire residents’ association, DLF has charged “exorbitant late fees and interest for delayed payments made by the buyers and the agreement between the apartment owners and DLF is one sided. The association claims to have found anomalies in the developer’s argument where DLF has said that the entire phase-V area is a single group housing society. “We had written to the town and country planning department asking whether commercial areas could be included in a group housing colony and they said that such an option was not available. We have decided to move Punjab and Haryana High Court,” said the association’s financial head, Amit Jain.
The imposition of heavy penalty by CCI on real estate giant DLF in Belaire complex case for breaching the norms regarding fair pricing is likely to have serious ramifications on the real estate industry in the city. This will invite a revision of all one-sided clauses in the Builder-Buyer Agreement. There could be similar findings by the commission in case of Park Place Residents Welfare Association case. There are more cases of Magnolias, New Town Heights where accusations have been made against DLF of abusing their dominance in the Gurgaon market.
Coming down heavily on the misuse of dominant position by DLF, the CCI said, “There appear to be no mitigating factors for taking a lenient view as the abusive practices have been carried on with the object of undue economic gains and business profits. On the other hand, the consistent practice of executing unfair conditions and holding out false representations and exploiting the dominant position has come on record which are certainly aggravating factors.” It said that the hefty penalty was being imposed “to adopt a deterrent approach so that recurrence of such conduct.
Belaire residents' association, CCI, Competition Commission of India, Gurgaon, Heavy Penalty, Heavy Penalty by CCI, No-objection certificates, NOC, Real Estate Industry, Residential units, Serious Ramifications on the Real Estate Industry, Town and country planning department
Dear Sir,
Thank you for providing the valuable information.
Regards,
Poonam Das
From the order on website of CCI it was found that the advocate of Belaire Residents Association is Sh M L Lahoty.
From google and site http://ilbs.delhigovt.nic.in/gcm2.aspthe, the address and contact numbers of Sh M L Lahoty is as follows:
Name SH. M.L. LAHOTY,
Advocate, Supreme Court of India
Date of Birth 05th November, 1946
Present Address B-11, Sagar Apartments, Tilak Marg, New Delhi – 110001 (INDIA)
Telephone +91-11-23381886
Fax +91-11-23387802
E-mail ml_lahoty@now-india.com
I think you can get the contact numbers of Belaire Residents Assn from him/his office.
We would like to know how to get in touch with the Belaire Residents Association, to understand this better.
victim / Parsvnath Developers
We would like to know how to get in touch with the Belaire Residents Association, to understand this better.
Sujata Rai
(appartment owner – Belaire, Golf Course Road, Gurgaon)