JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, INDIA VOL. 21, 2022 other words, when there is a provision of legal remedies in the alternative, the question arises, how to choose the forum? Is the availability of a remedy under a specific statute a bar to the alternative remedy? The question has often come for adjudication before various forums, whether the remedy which is available under the provisions of Consumer Protection Act, 1986, can be availed of as a remedy in addition to the one available under special statute? In Experion Developers, the three-judge bench has answered this question categorically in the affirmative by observing: “This question is no more res integra.”24 By specifically citing the authority of the three-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Imperia Structures Ltd., it is conclusively stated: “It has consistently been held by this Court that the remedies available under the provisions of the CP Act are additional remedies over and above the other remedies, including those made available under any special statutes; and that the availability of an alternate remedy is no bar in entertaining a complaint under the CP Act.”25 This summation is premised on the comprehensive examination of the jurisdiction of Consumer Forums vis-à-vis the specific remedies created under the RERA Act by undertaking comparative analysis of both the statutes, namely the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, and the RERA Act, 2016.26 This position has also been affirmed in IREO Grace,27 in which the three-Judge bench of the Supreme Court had an occasion to consider the question as to whether the provisions of the RERA Act must be given primacy over the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The bench answered the question in the negative by considering the juxtaposition of both the statutes and construing them purposively.28 In the light of two three-Judge bench decisions in Imperia Structures Ltd. and IREO Grace, the Supreme Court in the fact matrix of the instant case has concluded by stating 24 25 26 27 28 8 See, id., para 12. Id., para 12, citing Imperia Structures Ltd. v. Anil Patni and Anr., per Uday Umesh Lalit, Vineet Saran, S. Ravindra Bhat, JJ., MANU/SC/0811/2020: (2020) 10 SCC 783 (para 23 in which the Supreme Court has spoken through Justice Uday Umesh Lalit). Ibid. See supra note 22. In this respect, the Supreme Court particularly noticed the fact that the absence of a bar under the provisions of Section 79 of the RERA Act to the initiation of proceedings before a forum, which is not a civil court, read with Section 18 of the RERA Act makes the position clear, in as much as Section 18 of the RERA Act specifies that the remedies are “without prejudice to any other remedy available,” see, Experion Developers, para 13.2, citing IREO Grace Realtech (P) Ltd. (para 42).