Need innovative legislative solutions to problems in real estate sector: A-G

“We live in a globalised world… Every part of our life is full of technology… In the midst of that, if India needs to look for an innovative real estate solution, I think it is time… We still copy the way England frames legislation. I think time has come that India moves away from that, and real estate is a very important area where path-breaking innovative solutions need to be found and can be found,” he said.

Venkataramani, who was appointed the A-G in 2022, has been the court receiver overseeing the completion and handing over of 38,000 Amrapali flats by government-owned NBCC India since 2019. “In my one-and-a-half-years in working as Attorney [General], I found that I have received the highest amount of response to suggestions which I have given to the government. I had the occasion to talk about the real estate issue with the highest level, and I’m sure sooner or later, some of the reflections and suggestions will not only receive attention, but will be translated into action,” he said.

As of now, Venkataramani said, homebuyers move consumer courts and the Real Estate Regulatory Authorities. “These legislations offer one window of solutions, and if you flock to those windows, there can be a huge traffic jam,” he said, adding that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, was touted as an important innovative process.

“It is working, but sooner or later, it may also have its own internal problems. Not because the law is not well designed, but because institutions which could deliver the product, namely the court, the legal fraternity and the consumers, you can manipulate it, or you can breach it,” he said, adding that different ways of planning smart cities could be a solution, and that the legislations on “town and country planning have also failed”.

Meanwhile, speaking about the Amrapali case, the A-G said that no other apex court in the world had done what the Supreme Court of India did in this matter. “The Supreme Court of India is the most-worked court in the world. We all see from the outside, people talk about courts having holidays and vacations, but judges simply tire themselves out every day.”