MAHARERA rejects Chitra’s ‘refund’ plea

MahaRera has dismissed a petition by the late Ghazal singer Jagjit Singh’s widow Chitra Singh and her grandson Armaan Chowdhary seeking refund of around Rs 1.75 crore from a Goregoan builder after they cancelled their bookings and the payment was dishonoured.

Singh and Chowdhary had in 2013 booked two 3BHKs flats from Sai Siddhi Developers’ under-construction project in the Goregaon suburb of the city.

According to Karan Bhosale, the developer's lawyer, the regulator dismissed her plea as the scope of the petition was beyond its purview and that the petitioner was free to approach the civil courts for the cheque bouncing case. Dismissing the petition, the MahaRera, had in a late November order, said the matter did not violate any provisions of the Rera Act of 2016.

Chitra Singh had moved the regulator to get back her booking amount along with interest to the tune of around Rs 1.75 crore from Sai Siddhi Developers. She made the payments in 2013 for two 3BHK flats on the 10th floor of Sai Pearl in upscale Goregaon area of the city.

At the time of the booking, the cost of the flats was more than Rs 1 crore each.

But later the builder told her that he had permission for only eight floors and thus he could not give the desired flats, forcing her to cancel the bookings in 2015 and sought refunds. After the deal was cancelled, the builder gave her cheque in 2016, but those were dishonoured. Later Singh approached the authority for the refund, where her plea was dismissed.