The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down the West Bengal Housing Industry Regulation Act, 2017( WBHIRA), holding it to be unconstitutional in view of the 2017 Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) which is the central legislation on the identical subject-matter and passed by Indian Parliament. States have no authority to overrule central act already in place.
Today Supreme Court of India scarped the illegal WBHIRA act and said no need for such duplicate provision when central law in force in the same context. They also told the WBHIRA act to stand canceled from 4th May 2021, but projects prior to that no need to worry.
Rishi Jain_Managing Director_Jain Group 
Nakul Himatsingka, MD, Ideal Group 
Mr. Jitendra Khaitan, MD, Pioneer Property Management Limited
Mr. Jitendra Khaitan, Managing Director, Pioneer Property Management Limited
Scrapping off WBHIRA by Supreme Court will have a positive impact in long term. I feel we as real estate consultants should also have single registration for doing Pan-India business. Financial institutions have limited exposure because WBHIRA is applicable in West Bengal. The Central Government Supported Fund ‘SWAMIH’ is not taking over any stressed or NPA projects in West Bengal because they can only take over such projects where RERA is applicable and not under other regulatory authority such as WBHIRA.
It is also high time that the state government should repeal the urban land ceiling act because of which large real estate development is restricted.
Mr. Rishi Jain, Managing Director, Jain Group
It is a significant decision in terms of legal real estate practices. It is not going to make a huge difference. Both acts are virtually the same. Day to day all long-term impacts will be negligible on real estate.
Mr. Nakul Himatsingka, Managing Director, Ideal Group
HIRA and RERA were very similar laws with just small differences in wordings and adjustments to local conditions. We currently comply and shall continue to comply with whichever law is in force.
Mr. Arya Sumant, Managing Director, Eden Realty
Will have to wait for clarification in this regard from the government. I believe the rules that were there were more or less the same and Supreme Court has said that older projects continue to have the same registration. So, I think this is just a matter of another notification and there shouldn’t be any impact on consumers or projects due to this judgement.
