In 2011 (12th August 2011), on a petition by flat buyer
associations of two DLF projects in Gurgaon — DLF Park Palace and The Belaire,
the Competition Commission of India (CCI) found DLF abusing its dominant
position and imposed a penalty of Rs.630 crore on DLF and asked it to modify
apartment buyers’ agreement. DLF challenged CCI’s order in the Competition
Appellate Tribunal (Compat) and got a stay order on the penalty. On 19th May
2014, Compat finally dismissed DLF’s appeal. DLF then filed appeal before
Supreme Court which came up for hearing on 27th August 2014 before a bench of
Justice Ranjana Desai and N.V.Ramana. The appeal numbers are Civil Appeal
No.6328/2014, 6481/2014 and 6487/2014. The Court admitted DLF’s appeal subject
to DLF depositing the penalty amount of Rs.630 crore within 3 months, out of
which Rs.50 crore are to be deposited within three weeks. Experts feel that
these orders will encourage more buyers to stand up against real estate
developers in a market where delays in delivery, along with loopholes in
buyer-developer agreements, are rampant. Click below to read the COMPAT’s
order.
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