Bhubaneswar: In a first, the Kantabada panchayat has approached the Odisha Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (OREAT), challenging the Bhubaneswar Development Authority’s (BDA) decision to grant building plan approval to a private housing project allegedly falling within the panchayat’s jurisdiction, despite lacking the statutory power to do so.Allowing the panchayat’s appeal, OREAT set aside an earlier order of the Odisha Real Estate Regulatory Authority (ORERA), which rejected the gram panchayat’s complaint on maintainability grounds. The tribunal ruled that the term aggrieved person under RERA cannot be narrowly interpreted to mean only allottees, promoters or real estate agents.The dispute centres around a three-storeyed residential project comprising 26 units at Kantabada. The panchayat alleged that BDA granted plan approval to the project even though the area continues to be classified as rural and the jurisdiction for such approvals rests with the gram panchayat.Panchayats are empowered to provide plan approval to buildings under their jurisdiction as per a 2018 notification of the panchayati raj and drinking water department. In Dec 2024, ORERA dismissed the complaint filed by the sarpanch of Kantabada panchayat, holding that she was not an aggrieved person since she was neither an allottee nor a promoter or a real estate agent.Overturning the decision, the appellate tribunal observed that ORERA misdirected itself in interpreting Section 31(1) of the Act. “A complainant under the Act is not restricted to those three categories alone. What is mandatory is that the complaint must be filed against a promoter, allottee or real estate agent,” the tribunal held.The bench further clarified that a gram panchayat qualifies as a competent authority and therefore falls within the definition of a person under the RERA Act. With allegations of suppression of facts and jurisdictional violation leading to the project’s registration, the panchayat was fully entitled to approach ORERA, it said.OREAT also noted that ORERA failed to examine the core issues of the case, including whether BDA had the authority to accord plan approval in Kantabada and whether the registration of the project was revoked. The tribunal asked ORERA to rehear the matter on May 4, with instruction to dispose of the matter by May-end.“The objective of the legislature was to bring all real estate-related disputes under one umbrella, and ORERA was formed. While wrong interpretation of provisions creates confusion, such orders by OREAT give hope in the system,” real estate expert Bimalendu Pradhan said.
