Mumbai architect issues fake certificate, MahaRERA asked to take action

The Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) has been asked by its appellate tribunal to initiate action against an architect who is the former president of Practicing Engineers, Architects, and Town Planners Association (PEATA), for issuing a factually incorrect certificate for a building.

The certificate had helped the developer obtain an occupation certificate (OC) for the building. However, the work had not been completed.

Manoj Dubal, former president of PEATA, said, “The order was passed without listening to my side. I was not heard at all.”

In October 2017, home buyers of the Borivali project, Gundecha Trillium, had approached MahaRERA after the developer, Sea Princess Realty, did not hand over possession of the apartments and amenities within the stipulated time, by December 2016.

In January 2018, the authority had ordered that the developer to pay the interest for a six-month delay. The developer appealed in the tribunal seeking concession for the charges imposed.

“It is unfortunate that the architect has stated in his certificate that the building is complete. A responsible authority is not expected to sign blindly when the project itself is in doldrum and incomplete,” said the tribunal.

Sirish Sukhatme, senior architect with PEATA, said, “After the architect issues the certificate, a joint inspection is carried out by the local authority to reconfirm the factual elements of the certificate. This means that the officials who carried out the joint inspection before issuing the OC have also done a shoddy work. Why is the authority only blaming the architect?”

The tribunal finally stated, “The secretary of MahaRERA is requested to independently initiate action under the provision of RERA against Manoj Dubal for issuing a factually incorrect certificate.”