Consumers cannot be compelled to accept possession of property without proper approvals; they are entitled to refund and compensation for delays.

1. The present Joint Consumer Complaint (on behalf of 55 Buyers) is filed under S.12(1)(c) read with S.13(6) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short the "Act") read with O.1 R.8 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 by the Complainants / Buyers against ND Developers Pvt. Ltd. & Others (hereinafter referred to as the Opposite Parties) seeking refund of entire amount collected from them towards consideration of the respective Units along with interest on the ground of delay in construction of the Project.

2. The facts leading upto the present Complaint are that the Complainants / Buyers booked a Unit in the Project "ND Laurel" of the Opposite Parties situated at Gunjur Village, Varthur Hobli, Bangalore East Taluk, Karnataka. The Agreement between the Complainants / buyers and the Opposite Party No.1 (ND Developers Pvt. Ltd. / Developer) had been entered and the Opposite Party No.1 to undertake the construction of the flats and handover the legal possession of the same to the Complainants. Other Opposite Parties are the landowners, who had offered the land to the Opposite Party No.1 for development and construction of the flats. All the Opposite Parties are parties to the Agreement executed with the Complainants and therefore the Opposite Parties, including the Developer and the landowners, are jointly liable for the numerous instances of unfair trade practices, restrictive trade practices and deficiency in services.

3. The Complainants stated that all the Buyers who are part to this Complaint are having common grievance, i.e. failure of the Opposite Parties in handing over the peaceful legal possession of the flats within the time stipulated as per the Agreement executed with the Buyers and all of them want refund of the amount deposited with the Opposite Parties. All the Buyers have the "same interest" in terms of the Judgment passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in T.N. Housing Board v. T. N. Ganapathy , 1990 (SLT SOFT) 279 : 1990 (1) SCC 608 .

4. As per Clause 9 of the Agreement to Sell dated 31/03/2011, the legal possession of the flats along with all promised facilities and amenities were supposed to be handed over by December, 2012 with an additional grace period of 4 months, i.e. by March, 2013. The Opposite Parties failed to handover the legal possession of the flats and even those Complainants to whom incomplete possession of the flats have been offered. The Opposite Parties have failed to obtain the Occupancy Certificate despite already having collected 95% of the fund from the Buyers.

5. The Opposite Party No. 1 / ND Developers Pvt. Ltd. vide e - mail dated 20/10/2016 informed the Buyers that it will handover the possession of the flats to them by end of March, 2017 along with road work, STP, lift, corridor, staircase etc. but it failed. The Opposite parties vide e - mail dated 16/10/2017 informed the Buyers that the preliminary Occupancy Certificate will be available within 3 to 4 months but they failed to obtain the Occupancy Certificate till date. The Project is incomplete and poor quality of construction has been done. Further, the incomplete possession of flats was offered without the basic amenities like lift, stair case, etc.

6. Thus, aggrieved by the delay in possession of the respective Units, the Complainants / Buyers have filed this Complaint with the following prayer to:
(a) Direct opposite parties to refund to the complainants and all other flat buyers with same interest the amount which the complainants and other flat buyers with same interest have deposited with the opposite party No. 1 (reflecting in Annexure - A) along with compensation in the form of simp