Only CPC Provisions Mentioned In RERA Act Apply To RERA Proceedings, Remaining Provisions Intentionally Excluded By Legislature: HP High Court

Addressing the extent to which the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, apply to proceedings before the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has ruled that only those provisions of the CPC explicitly mentioned in the Real Estate Act, 2016, apply to RERA proceedings, while other provisions were intentionally excluded by the Legislature. Adjudicating a matter, Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan observed, “The Legislature has expressly made only the aforementioned provisions of CPC applicable to the RERA and is, therefore, deemed to have intentionally excluded the other provisions of CPC from its applicability to the proceedings.” This proposition, the court said, is based on the principle of “ expressio unius”, which implies that the express inclusion of certain provisions naturally excludes others that are not mentioned. The court clarified that only the provisions of the CPC explicitly mentioned in the Real Estate Act, 2016, apply to RERA proceedings, and therefore, the petitioners' argument was unfounded. In these cases, the Supreme Court had echoed the concerns first raised by the Privy Council over a century ago, stating that “the difficulties of a litigant in India indeed begin when they have obtained a decree.” The Apex Court had also observed that even after more than a hundred years, “there has been no improvement and still the decree-holder faces the same problem what was being faced in the past.” The Himachal Pradesh High Court observed that the petitioners, despite not having paid a single paisa towards the decree, continued to argue that the principles of natural justice had not been followed.