AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court has undone the stay on the Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority’s (GujRERA) order to detain officials from Pacifica Developers Pvt Ltd, including managing director Rakesh Israni, in civil prison for 60 days. The developers were penalized for not delivering a house to a buyer and for allegedly selling the same property to someone else.
Last week, Justice Vaibhavi Nanavati not only permitted the enforcement of the civil prison order but also referred the case to a division bench for potential contempt proceedings against Israni, as well as other officials—Darpan Tarwani, Kaushik Patel, and Jay Chandani—for presenting false information to the court.
“The actions of the original petitioners in SCA No. 20527 of 2022 are contemptuous and warrant action. The court finds it appropriate to refer the original petitioners to the bench dealing with contempt matters,” the order states.
In 2019, GujRERA directed Pacifica Developers to deliver a flat to the complainant, Rachna Sharma. After the developers failed to comply, GujRERA ordered in October 2022 that Israni and others should be imprisoned for 60 days.
The developers subsequently approached the high court, proposing a settlement and depositing Rs 24 lakh, as decreed by the court, to be disbursed to Sharma. The court accepted the settlement and stayed the GujRERA’s civil detention order.
Later, Sharma’s attorney, Vishal Dave, informed the court that the developers intended to withdraw their petition and instead file an appeal with the RERA appellate tribunal. The court permitted this and maintained the stay on the civil detention order.
However, in 2024, Sharma returned to the court, claiming that the developers never filed the appeal with the appellate tribunal and had improperly continued to benefit from the stay order.
Justice Nanavati remarked, “The aforementioned is, in the court’s view, an abuse of legal processes and is contemptuous. The original petitioners (builders) are jointly and severally liable for this.” The case was referred to a division bench for contempt proceedings, and the high court ordered the release of the Rs 24 lakh deposit to Sharma.
