M/S Laureate Buildwell Pvt. Ltd. v. Charanjeet Singh
Background
An original allottee booked a flat in a Noida housing project from builder Laureate, which was to be delivered within 36 months. When construction was delayed, she sold her rights in the flat to the respondent-purchaser, who then paid further instalments directly and informed the builder of the transfer. Possession was still not handed over (no occupancy certificate even by the time of the appeal), so the purchaser approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) seeking a full refund with interest; the NCDRC ruled in his favour, and Laureate appealed to the Supreme Court, partly challenging whether a subsequent purchaser (not the original allottee) was even entitled to this relief and interest.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that a subsequent purchaser who steps into an original allottee's shoes can validly maintain a consumer complaint and claim relief for the builder's delay, since consumer law is to be interpreted broadly in favour of genuine buyers and technicalities like privity of contract should not defeat legitimate claims. However, the Court also held that a purchaser who buys into an already-delayed project has some implied knowledge of the delay and cannot claim interest from the very beginning as if unaware of it; interest should instead run from when the builder acquired knowledge of the transfer to the new purchaser. Applying this, the Court modified the NCDRC's order to award interest at 9% per annum from April 2016 (when the builder was informed of the transfer), rather than from the original payment dates, and partly allowed the appeal on that limited point while upholding the refund-with-interest remedy in principle.
Lesson Learnt
If you buy an already-booked flat from someone else (a "subsequent purchaser"), you can still sue the builder in consumer court for delay and seek a refund with interest, but the interest may only be calculated from the point the builder was told about your purchase, not from the original buyer's very first payment.