Akshay vs Aditya

REPORTABLE 2024 INSC 657 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

Civil Appeal Nos.3642-3646/2018

AKSHAY & ANR. Appellant(s)

VERSUS

ADITYA & ORS. Respondent(s)

J U D G M E N T

1. This set of five Appeals arises out of the common

Judgment and Order dated 28-11-2017 passed by the

National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, New

Delhi (here-in-after, referred to as “NCDRC”) in First

Appeal Nos.1664-1668 of 2017, whereby the NCDRC has

dismissed the said Appeals filed by the present

appellants challenging the Judgment and Order dated

10-7-2017 passed by the Maharashtra State Consumer

Disputes Redressal Commission, Circuit Bench, Nagpur

(here-in-after, referred to as “State Commission”) in a

Consumer Complaint No.85 of 2015.

2. The appellants – herein are the owners of the land in

question.

Signature Not Verified They entered into a Joint Venture Agreement Digitally signed by VISHAL ANAND Date: 2024.09.04 with Respondent No.2 – Glandstone Mahaveer Infrastructure 16:38:06 IST Reason:

Pvt. Ltd. for the development of the land and for 2

construction of flats as mentioned herein. It appears that

the appellants also executed Irrevocable Power of

Attorney dated 6-7-2013 in favour of Respondent No.2 with

regard to the said land. The Respondent No.2 on the basis

of the said documents, entered into the sale agreements

with the respondents – complainants for the units in

question.

3. The respondents – complainants filed the complaints

before the `State Commission’ under Section 17 of the

Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against the present

appellants and Respondent No.2 seeking inter alia the

declaration that the present appellants and the

Respondent No.2 were jointly and severally involved in

the unfair trade practices and were guilty of deficiency

in service, that they were jointly and severally liable

to complete the activities and construction as per the

terms and conditions agreed upon between the parties and

put the complainants in possession of the properties

mentioned in Schedule `D’ after completing the

construction as also to execute the registered sale deeds

in respect thereof.

4. The `State Commission’ after considering the

pleadings of the parties allowed the said complaints. The 3

`State Commission’ holding opponent Nos.1 to 3 (the

present appellants and Respondent No.2) liable for the

completion of the construction of dwelling units as per

the agreement with the complainants and passed the

following order:-

“i. The complaints as referred Nos.CC/15/85, CC/15/86, CC/15/99, CC/15/100 & CC/15/111 are partly allowed.

ii. The OP Nos.1,2&3 to provide the possession of the dwelling unit agreed in Agreement to Sell (SA) with each complainant in the span of six months from the date of the receipt of copy of this order and the complainants to pay the entire consideration of the dwelling unit as per the stages and the final amount at the time of sale deed and possession as per the agreement.

iii. The OP Nos.1,2,&3 after completion of construction of dwelling units as per agreement to sell & on receiving full consideration as per agreement as above, shall execute sale deed of respective dwelling units as per agreement to respective complainant. The complainants shall bear expenses for execution and registration of sale deeds.

iv. The O.P. Nos.2&3 to cooperate with O.P. No.1 in the compliance of trhe agreement signed by the O.P. No.1 with the complainants as per the conditions of the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) and (Irrevocable Power of Attorney (IPA).

v. The O.P. No.1 to provide the compensation of Rs.1,00,000/- to each of complainant for physical and mental harassment in the span of one month from the date of receipt of copy of this order and on failure, to pay interest at the rate of 9% p.a. upon it, till the final payment.

vi. The O.P.No.1 to provide the cost of Rs.10,000/- to each of the complainant in the span of 30 days from the date of the receipt of copy of this order & on failure to pay interest upon it at the rate of 9% p.a., till final 4

payment.

vii No order against O.P.No.4

viii Copy of the order be provided to both the parties, free of cost.”

5. Being aggrieved by the said order, the present

appellants, preferred the First Appeals before the

`NCDRC’, which came to be dismissed by the `NCDRC’ vide

the impugned common order holding as under:-

“8. The State Commission have brought out in their order that the Joint-Venture Agreement (JVA) and the Irrevocable Power of Attorney (IPA) were prepared on 06.07.2013. As per condition No.15 of the said agreement, the builder had been given the authority to sell the constructed Units on the property. The IPA also authorised the OP-1 builder to execute the registered sale deeds etc. and receive the consideration. The State Commission, further, observed that the present appellants/OP-2 and 3 had issued notice, by which they claimed that they had cancelled the JVA and the IPA. However, the said notice was issued on 12.08.2014, which was much after the agreement made by the OP-1 with the complainants. The State Commission concluded that at the time of the agreement between the builder and the complainants, the JVA and IPA were very much operative. It is evident, therefore, that the appellants cannot wash their hands off from the matter, as it would result in grave injustice to the complainants consumers.

9. At the time of hearing also in these appeals, the learned counsel for the appellants was asked that in case the plea taken by them in the appeals were accepted, how shall it be possible to safeguard the interests of the consumer, who had invested in the said project, after looking at the agreement between them and the OP-1 builder.

However, no satisfactory reply could be given by the appellants on that score. It is made out, therefore, that the interests of the complainants/ consumers shall be heavily jeopardised, if the plea of the appellants/OP-2 and 3 is accepted. 5

10. The appellants have referred to the orders made by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case, Faqir Chand Gulati vs. Uppal Agencies Pvt. Ltd. & Anr., (2008) 10 SCC 345 and in the case, Sunga Daniel Babu vs. Sri Vasudeva Constructions & Ors., (2016) 8 SCC 429, in support of their arguments before the State Commission as well as this Commission. I, however, agree with the contention of the State Commission that these two judgments are not applicable in the present cases. In the said judgments, it was concluded that a landowner, who was supposed to be provided a portion of the devloped property after the development made by the builder, was a consumer vis-a-vis the builder. The issue in the present case is, however, different, as the present complaints have been filed by the complainants against the builder as well as the land owners/appellants. The orders made by the Hon'ble Apex Court are, therefore not applicable in the present cases.

11. From the discussion above, it is held that the appellants/OP-2 and 3 landowners cannot be allowed to escape their responsibility/role in the matter of providing relief to the complainants/consumers in terms of the impugned order passed by the State Commission. It is held, therefore, that the impugned order does not suffer from any illegality, irregularity or jurisdictional error of any kind and the same is upheld. The present appeals are ordered to be dismissed in limine.”

6. It is vehemently submitted by the learned Senior

counsel – Mr. Kailash Vasdev that the appellants had

already revoked the Power of Attorney executed by them in

favour of Respondent No.2, by the letter of revocation

dated 12-8-2014, coupled with Public Notice of the same

date and hence the appellants could not be held liable

for any act done by Respondent No.2, who had allegedly

entered into agreements with the complainants. He also

submitted that the Complaints as such are not 6

maintainable under the Consumer Protection Act against

the appellants, who were not privy to the agreement

between the Respondent No.2 and the complainants.

However, the learned Senior counsel – Mr. Siddhartha Dave

for the Respondent No.2 submitted that the said

respondent is still ready to honour the JVA entered into

by the appellants and Respondent No.2 and ready to

complete the construction work with the cooperation of

the appellants. He further submitted that the Irrevocable

Power of Attorney was executed by the appellants in

favour of Respondent No.2 after receiving consideration

of Rs.1.51 Crores, pursuant to which, the Respondent No.2

had entered into the agreement with the complainants.

7. The learned Senior counsel – Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayan

drawing the attention of the Court to the alleged letter

of revocation dated 12-8-2014, submitted that even as per

the said letter, the appellants had stated that they

could not be liable for the acts of the Respondent No.2

“henceforth” meaning thereby after the said letter,

however, the Respondent No.2 had entered into the

agreement with the complainants i.e consumers prior to

the said letter and pursuant to the JAV executed between 7

the appellants and Respondent No.2, which has not been

cancelled so far.

8. Having regard to the submissions made by the learned

Senior counsels for the parties, and to the impugned

Judgments and orders passed by the `State Commission’ as

well as the `NCRDC’, it clearly transpires that

undisputedly an irrevocable power of attorney dated

6-7-2013 was executed by the appellants in favour of the

Respondent No.2 along the JAV of the same date, pursuant

to which the Respondent No.2 had undertaken to develop

the land in question. It further appears that though

allegedly the said power of attorney was revoked by the

appellants vide the letter dated 12-8-2014, the JAV has

not been revoked so far and the same still continues to

be in force. As rightly submitted by the learned counsel

for the respondents, in the letter daeted 12-8-2014, the

appellants had stated to be not liable “Henceforth”, i.e.

after the said letter was sent. The appellants therefore

were bound by the acts/deeds of the Respondent No.2

carried out pursuant to the irrevocable Power of Attorney

till it was terminated, in accordance with law. It is

also not denied that the appellants have not taken any

action whatsoever against the respondent No.2 with regard 8

to the alleged non-compliance of the terms and conditions

of JAV by the said Respondent. Under the circumstances,

it does not lie in the mouth of the appellants to say

that the appellants are not liable for the acts of

Respondent No.2.

9. The `NCDRC’ having considered all the issues with

regard to the joint liability of the appellants as well

as the Respondent No.2, we do not find any good ground to

interfere with the same.

10. In that view of the matter, the Appeals being devoid

of merits and are dismissed.

…………………………………………J (BELA M. TRIVEDI)

………………………………………………….J (SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA) NEW DELHI 29TH AUGUST, 2024.

9

ITEM NO.109 COURT NO.14 SECTION XVII-A

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Civil Appeal Nos.3642-3646/2018

AKSHAY & ANR. Appellant(s)

VERSUS

ADITYA & ORS. Respondent(s)

Date : 29-08-2024 These appeals were called on for hearing today.

CORAM :

HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE BELA M. TRIVEDI HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA

For Appellant(s) Mr. Kailash Vasdev, Sr. Adv.

Mr. R. Mohan, Adv.

Mr. V. Balaji, Adv.

Mr. Asaithambi MSM, Adv.

Mr. B. Dhananjay, Adv.

Mr. S. Devendran, Adv.

Mr. Limrao Singh Rawat, Adv.

Mr. Rakesh K. Sharma, AOR For Respondent(s) Mr. Piyush Singhal, Adv.

Mr. Bijnender Singh, Adv.

Mr. Praveen Swarup, AOR

Mr. Siddhartha Dave, Sr. Adv.

Alekhya Shastry, Adv.

Ms. Arundati Mukherjee, Adv.

Ms. Amita Singh Kalkal, AOR

Mr. Abhinav Ramkrishna, AOR

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

The Appeals being devoid of merits and are dismissed, in terms of the signed Reportable Judgment.

(VISHAL ANAND) (MAMTA RAWAT) ASTT. REGISTRAR-cum-PS COURT MASTER (NSH)

(Signed Reportable Judgment is placed on the file)