Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to SC: Can’t live in Parsvnath flat

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court appointed a two-member fact-finding committee of lawyers on Wednesday to check on the facilities at the flat of minister of state Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in Parsvnath Developers’ Exotica project in Gurugram and find out whether it was habitable.
Although the developer handed over possession of the flat, booked by Rathore in 2006, on the Supreme Court’s direction, the minister approached the apex court again, complaining to a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy that the flat was not habitable as it lacked basic facilities, including parking space.
Advocate Kaveeta Wadia, appearing for Rathore, told the bench that the developer had not fulfilled the promises made by it at the time of booking and sought the court’s intervention. She contended that the allotted flat did not have access to common facilities of the project and the tower in which it was located had access through a ‘kachcha’ road.
“The company must allot me a flat in the tower which is well-connected and having access to common facilities,” she submitted.
The builder, however, refuted all the allegations levelled by Rathore and told the bench that flat is habitable. Parsvnath’s counsel said the company is ready to refund the money to the minister with interest but Rathore insisted that he wanted possession of a flat with all facilities.
After hearing both sides, the court appointed the lawyers’ panel comprising Gopal Shankar Narayan and Gaurav Aggrawal and asked them to file a report within two weeks after a visit to the spot.
“The committee will go and inspect what is the shortest and longest route to common facilities which everyone is getting. It will also look into the allegations pertaining to parking facilities, kachcha road,” the bench said.
The bench also made it clear that the company had to compensate Rathore for the pain and trouble he had to go through because of the delay in getting possession of the flat. The court said the amount of compensation would be decided by it at a later stage.
Rathore had booked a flat in Parsvnath Exotica project in Sector 53 of Gurugram in 2006 and had paid around Rs 75 lakh. The developer had assured him to hand over the flat by October 2009 but failed to fulfil its promise, forcing him to initiate legal action.
The minister had filed a case against Parsvnath before National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission(NCDRC) which had in January directed the company to hand over the flat within eight months. The commission had asked the company to pay compensation to Rathore for delay in handing over possession of the flat.
The company then approached SC challenging the NCDRC order but the court had on October 21 directed it to hand over possession within two days.