Cuttack, Feb 22: The Odisha Apartment (Ownership and Management) Rules, 2023 was notified on February 16, 2024, but the ‘competent authority’ for registration of allottees associations is yet to be notified. However, several sub-registrars have approved sale and purchase of flats. Bimalendu Pradhan had filed a PIL against illegal registration of sale deeds of flats in multi-storey apartments which do not have occupancy certificate and registration of apartment owners or allottees association certificate.
The division bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice S K Sahoo said, “The inspector general of registrations (IGR) shall be required to inform the court whether the Act is fully workable and all steps have been taken to ensure that the provisions of the Act are given effect to.”
“We have not been able to find out whether competent authority has been notified or not,” the bench said and observed: “We are of the view that the Act cannot be said to be workable in the absence of notification.
Hearing the petition, the Orissa High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to submit affidavit whether proper notification has been issued in tune with section 23 of the Act.
Section 23 confers upon the state government the power to notify one or more persons not below the rank of deputy collector as the competent authority for issuing certificate of registration association of allottees within the local limit.
The bench further directed the IGR to inform the court as to what action it proposes to take regarding the registration of apartments that have been allowed by the sub-registrars in contravention of the provisions of the Act.
