Maha RERA – Hybrid Hearing – Guidelines to streamline process
The petition is filed to frame guidelines for execution of orders of MahaRERA including but not limited to mentioning matters, conducting hearings immediately after filing execution proceedings and expeditious disposal of execution proceedings.
There is no mechanism for getting the matter listed on a specified or certain date for the first time or any subsequent date.
After on-line filing
Circular No.34A dated 8.4.2025 carves out an exception that the complaints for non-compliance of the RERA order can be heard without following the chronological or seniority process.
Access to justice is a constitutional guarantee and cannot be reduced to a mere formality. Procedural fairness includes the right of parties to choose their mode of hearing, especially when both physical and virtual modalities are feasible. Tribunals must not only be accessible in form, but also in substance.
In Sarvesh Mathur Vs. Registrar General, High Court of Punjab and Haryana (2023 SCC OnLine SC 1293) has highlighted the importance of hybrid hearings and gave binding directions.
Denial of access to either mode amounts to procedural injustice.
It was made clear that access to virtual hearings alone is insufficient. Denial of physical hearing, even when facilities exist, amounts to an unreasonable fetter on litigants’ rights.
The decision emphasizes that the ability to choose one’s mode of hearing is integral to access to justice.
Access to justice is not a privilege but a constitutional right. Ensuring Procedural clarity, physical accessibility and technological support are core elements of that right.
As John F. Kennedy aptly remarked “The time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
The High Court directed MahaRERA to revisit Circular No.34A dated 8.4.2025 and its Standard Operating Procedure for (a) urgent listing of matters, (b) execution of non-compliance orders, (c) mentioning of cases (physically and virtually) and (d) pronouncement and publication of reserved orders.
MahaRERA shall also maintain a register of praecipes for circulation, production or urgent listing and shall record the acceptance or rejection of such applications.
Judgment dated 24.7.July 2025 of the High Court of Bombay in Writ Petition (L) No.11502 of 2025 of Mayur L. Desai Vs. The State of Maharashtra and others
