Homebuyers being defrauded, uniform buyer-builder agreement necessary: SC

Homebuyers in the country are being defrauded, necessitating the need to bring uniformity in builder-buyer agreements, the Supreme Court observed on Monday, 8 July.

"Buyers are being defrauded by builders all across and that is why the need for uniformity now," a bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, justice J.B. Pardiwala and justice Manoj Misra said.

The top court was hearing a PIL filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay in 2021, saying a model agreement was required to ensure transparency and fairness and to restrain builders and agents from indulging in unfair and restrictive trade practices.

Senior advocate Devashish Bharuka, assisting the bench as an amicus curiae, told the bench that a final status report along with draft builder-buyer agreements had been placed on record.

It was also submitted that suggestions of states had been received and incorporated.

The bench said it would peruse the report of the amicus curiae and the objections to it.

Earlier, the bench had allowed the stakeholders, including industry associations, to furnish their suggestions on these model agreements to the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

The bench has posted the matter for hearing on 19 July.