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3 weeks ago
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ARTICLE AD BOX
Summary
This year’s National Consumer Day focuses on grievance redressal, but neither consumer commissions nor real estate regulators have helped homebuyers left staring at stalled projects. Insolvency seems like their last resort, but the nitty-gritty of resolution needs to be spelt out clearly.
To mark National Consumer Day on 24 December in honour of India’s Consumer Protection Act of 1986, the government has made “efficient and speedy disposal through digital justice” this year’s theme.
It aims to highlight the consumer’s right to grievance redressal under that law’s 2020 update, which set up adjudicatory bodies at the district, state and national levels to look into disputes. Given the judiciary’s overload of cases, this expansion was welcome.
This January saw the launch of e-Jagriti, a unified platform for online redressal that explains the 2025 theme’s digital aspect. Among India’s most disgruntled consumers are homebuyers trapped by stalled housing projects.
With real estate regulators failing to help in many states, insolvency cases are being filed. Many builders are seen to be out of money and homebuyers are legally classified as financial creditors, but we await clarity on how exactly such cases are to be resolved.
India’s Supreme Court favours project-wise resolution. If this eases project takeovers aimed at speedy home delivery, our bankruptcy code should explicitly endorse it—with clearly defined terms that can satisfy project bidders and forsaken homebuyers alike.
English (US) ·