Developer ordered to pay Rs 22.30 lakh to senior citizen in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission ordered a developer to pay a senior citizen Rs 22.30 lakh with 9% interest after the developer failed to pay twice the price of the plot, which was agreed on at the time of the sale. The developer will also have to pay Rs 40,000 extra as compensation to the complainant.
This case involved a resident of Manekbaug, Bhavna Khanderia, who bought a plot from Vinod Thakkar of India Green Realty Ltd, in a scheme called Greenland being developed at Zamp village of Sanand taluka near Nal Sarovar. According to the purchase agreement, the developer was to buy back the plot three years after the sale at double the sale price. In 2014, Khanderia made the full payment of Rs 13.65 lakh towards the purchase of the 455-square-yard plot.
When she demanded Rs 27.30 lakh in 2017, the developer allegedly did not respond positively. After much persistence, he issued four cheques in 2018, but they bounced due to insufficient funds in the bank account.
Khanderia approached the commission in 2019 through Mukesh Parikh of the Consumer Protection and Action Committee and submitted that she is an old and ailing person. Like many other purchasers, she was also drawn by the false promises that the area would be developed and the land would fetch very good prices, failing which the developer would buy back the plot at twice the price in three years. As the developer had issued cheques and a legal notice was issued for recovery, she demanded the remaining Rs 22.30 lakh with interest.
The developer did not appear before the commission during the proceedings, and it concluded that not buying back the plot from Khanderia according to the buyback agreement was an unfair trade practice and a deficiency in service on the part of the developer.