Builder scraps commercial complex in Ghaziabad, told to repay buyer Rs 6.5L booking fee

Time of India

04-06-2025

Ghaziabad: District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (DCDRC) has directed a real estate developer to pay Rs 6.5 lakh to a buyer who booked a shop in a commercial complex being developed by the firm in 2014 but later cancelled it when the project was scrapped.
Airwil Developers Private Limited, a private builder, had proposed a commercial complex, Airwil Wow, in Mohan Nagar and had collected advance payments from buyers for shops. Complainant Suchitra Mahant, a Sahibabad resident, had purchased a shop in the complex and paid around Rs 13 lakh as booking amount on Feb 27, 2015. The total cost of the property was Rs 23.2 lakh.
A complaint submitted before the consumer disputes redressal commission by Mahant stated that the project was subsequently scrapped by the builder.
"They offered an alternative shop in other projects, but I preferred to withdraw and sought a full refund of the advance paid to the company," Mahant said, adding that she furnished all the original documents as demanded by the company to initiate the refund.
The complainant told the forum that the developer returned Rs 6 lakh through various channels. It then issued two cheques of Rs 3.25 lakh each on Dec 5 and 20, 2015.
"But both the cheques bounced. So, I served a demand notice to the developer, through my advocate, on Jan 25, 2017, but neither the money was refunded, nor did the firm respond to the demand notice," she told the forum.
Mahant subsequently filed a petition in the consumer forum in April 2017.
Airwil Developers contested the petition on two grounds. They argued that the DCDRC's jurisdiction was limited to cases involving goods or services valued up to Rs 20 lakh, whereas the shop's price was Rs 26.3 lakh.
They also claimed the petition was time-barred as the deal had commenced in 2014 and the petition was moved in 2017.
The DCDRC bench, comprising president Praveen Kumar Jain and members Shailja Sachan and RP Singh, noted the dispute centred on the non-refund of Rs 13 lakh advance payment and not the shop's total value, thus it fell within the forum's jurisdiction. They also noted that the two cheques that had bounced were issued in Dec 2015, and the complaint was filed in April 2017, which was within a two-year limitation period.
In their order, dated May 24, the forum observed that "by not giving possession of the shop and failing to return the advance amount, the developers are guilty of deficiency in service".
The forum directed Airwil developers to return the remaining advance amount of Rs 6,51,326 to the complainant with a simple annual interest calculated on the amount at a rate of 8% from the date when the application was filed to the date of final payment, which should be within 45 days of the order. The commission has also asked the realtor to pay Rs 5,000 as litigation costs and for mental agony caused to the customer.