ACCESS TO JUSTICE TOWARDS THE CREATION OF INCLUSIVE SOCIAL ORDER mechanism that could protect the interests of consumers institutionally with a certain degree of ‘professionalism and standardisation’. It is this stance that has led to the enactment of the central legislation, namely, the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, “in the interests of effective consumer protection, uniformity and standardization of business practices and the transactions in the real estate sector.”10 It seeks to provide “for the establishment of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (the Authority) for Regulation and promotion of real estate sector and to ensure sale of plot, apartment or building, as the case may be, in an efficient and transparent manner and to protect the interest of consumers in real estate sector and establish the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal to hear appeals from the decisions, directions or orders of the Authority.”11 A bare perusal of the objective statement of the Act of 2016 reveals that regulatory measures of the real estate sector have been designed with the singular purpose to protect the interests of the buyers of plot/apartment/building by ensuring transparency of the deal processes between the buyer and the seller, lest the buyer should be duped by the seller through concealed clauses that may work out to be unfair or unjust to the buyer. In short, the whole ambit of contractual relationship of buyer-seller through the legislative measure has become justiciable for promoting access to justice. This stance may be illustrated through a recent three-Judge bench decision of the Supreme Court in Experion Developers Pvt. Ltd. v. Sushma Ashok Shiroor (2022).12 On fact matrix, in this case, the appellant, Experion Developers Private Ltd., booked an apartment of the respondent lady in Gurugram, Haryana, for a total consideration of more than 2.3 crore of rupees and agreed for construction linked payment plan. This led to the execution of the Apartment Buyer’s Agreement. Under the terms of Agreement, the developers shall handover the possession of the Apartment within a stipulated period. Since there was failure to honour the contractual commitment, the respondent buyer, as a consumer, approached the National Disputes Redressal Commission by filing an original complaint, alleging that she had paid a total consideration of over two 10 11 12 See, the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (Hereinafter simply, the Act of 2016). Ibid. Per U.U. Lalit, S. Ravindra Bhat and Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha, JJ., MANU/SC/0433/2022: AIR 2022 SC 1824. Hereinafter simply Experion Developers. 5