Flat buyers can now file complaint against builder if he /she get less Carpet area than promised in agreement. In a first-of-its-kind case, the legal metrology department (LMD) has seized a flat of a housing society building in Mulund. It was found that the builder had cheated the buyer on the Carpet Area .
Mulund resident and interior
designer Nitin Dharap had approached LMD when he got less Carpet Area in his
sixth floor flat of the ten-storied Purvanchal Housing society in, Navghar,
Mulund. It was less than promised in the agreement. After Dharaps’s
complaint LMD Then carried out a panchnama. It was found that flat was 3.7262
sq meters (more than 30 sq ft) The
flat was then seized. LMD is also process to initiate a criminal complaint in
this regard
Deterrent penal provisions are
prescribed for errant traders and other persons under the Legal Metrology Act.
Such offenders are brought to book and punished accordingly. There is a
provision in the Act to compound prosecution cases at the department level if
the offender has committed an offence for the first time. Under such
circumstances, the authorities impose compounding fees upon the offender and
the matter is settled at the department level. However, if the option is not
exercised by the offender to get it compounded at the department level, then
the case is sent to the judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) or a
metropolitan court. In that case, it attracts the provision of Criminal
Procedure Code as it is treated as criminal case.
According to Mr. Pandey, inspector
general (IG) Of LMD, even builders who are selling properties using sq ft,
instead of sq meters, for measurement can be booked under the Act. “This is
because, in 1956, the Indian government passed a Standards of Weights and
Measures system to introduce metric system based on Punjab Act. The metric
system began in October 1958, making metric weight mandatory by October 1960,
and the metric measures mandatory by April 1962 banning all other systems.”
“Puranik Builders published an
advertisement that promised 45 sq ft free. LMD then issued a notice to them. Now, the
advertisement says 45 ‘smiles’ instead of 45 sq ft. No builder can sell
property on square foot basis as it is illegal.
You too can write to Legal
Metrology, Maharashtra at dyclm-mh@gov.in or to IG Sanjay Pandey at
sp102001@yahoo.com
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