RERA Was Built For Protection But Undone By Inaction

When a Supreme Court judge calls the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) a "rehab centre for ex-bureaucrats," it's a wake-up call.

- MANISHA NATARAJAN

Justice Surya Kant's blunt remark in March isn't the judiciary's first indictment and likely won't be the last.

Insiders have been sounding the alarm for years. Former Uttar Pradesh RERA member Balvinder Kumar admitted the authority lacks teeth to rein in rogue builders. Haryana's adjudicating officer Rajender Kumar called it a "toothless tiger." Even Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri criticized states in 2022 for weakening the law and diluting its core purpose: protecting homebuyers.

Now comes a shiny new infotech initiative: a unified digital platform for all state RERAs. It sounds great on paper, with the promise of more transparency, easier access to project details and a single central database. But access to information was never the real issue. The problem is that RERA is simply not delivering the protection it promised.

When it was launched in 2016, RERA gave hope to millions of homebuyers trapped in stalled, delayed or sub-par projects. It promised accountability, compensation and a way to fight back. Nearly a decade later, many of those promises remain unfulfilled.