Marvel Omega Builders Pvt. Ltd. and Anr. v. Shrihari Gokhale and Anr.
Background
The respondents had booked a residential villa for about Rs. 8.31 crore in a Pune housing project and paid Rs. 8.14 crore between 2012 and 2013, under an agreement promising possession by 31 December 2014. The builder failed to hand over possession by that date or at any point for nearly five years thereafter, and also did not refund the money paid. The buyers approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, which ordered a full refund of the principal with 10% interest; the builder then appealed to the Supreme Court after also losing an application to the Commission for more time to comply.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that the builder was clearly deficient in service: it had committed to a possession date, repeatedly failed to meet revised deadlines (its own May 2014 schedule had promised delivery by October 2014), and still had not delivered the villa roughly five years later. Even accepting the builder's claim that the villa was now finally ready, the Court held that such an enormous delay meant the buyers could not be forced to accept the property and were entitled instead to a full refund with reasonable interest, as the Commission had ordered. The Court dismissed the appeals, upheld the Commission's refund-with-interest order, and additionally directed that the villa could not be sold or have any third-party rights created in it until the decree in the buyers' favour was fully satisfied.
Lesson Learnt
When a builder causes years of unreasonable delay in delivering possession, a buyer is not obligated to accept the property whenever it eventually becomes ready: they can instead insist on a full refund with interest, and courts can protect that right by barring the builder from selling the property to anyone else in the meantime.