Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERAs), set up to regulate the real estate sector and ensure speedy disposal of disputes, have come to earn a different name from the Supreme Court. A bench of justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan recently made the scathing observation that RERAs have become a “rehabilitation centre for retired bureaucrats”. The apex court’s observation is based on the deep analysis of the facts related to manning RERAs.
The prime reason is most of the RERA heads are retired bureaucrats, predominated by the officers from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). As per the information available on the RERA websites, there are 32 states and Union Territories (UTs) which have set up RERAs, out of which at least 25 are being headed by former bureaucrats. And among them, 22 are retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers.
There are four states and UTs (Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Ladakh) which are yet to set up a RERA.
The RERA, set up by an Act of the Parliament in 2016, has seen nearly half a dozen former chief secretaries of states and UTs being given the post of chairperson in RERAs in several states particularly, Maharashtra which have the highest number of real estate projects registered in the country, since the Act’s inception in 2017.
Even recently, former Maharashtra Chief Secretary Manoj Saunik (Retd.IAS:1987:MH) took over as its RERA chairman from another former chief secretary Ajoy Mehta (Retd:1984:MH) in September. This is just for an example. Appointing former bureaucrats as chairpersons and members of RERAs has been a trend with the state governments since its inception in 2017.
