863

Hon’ble Kerala High Court held that:

(i) The Completion Certificate is a conclusive proof for completion of the project as far as the RERA is concerned. When it is proved that the Completion Certificate is received by the promoter before the date of commencement of the RERA, the project is not liable to be registered. In such case, further enquiry as to whether a project is ongoing or not is unwarranted.
(ii) Even if the original Occupancy Certificate received by the Promoter is not available, the promoter is free to produce other evidences to the satisfaction of the Authority to prove that Occupancy Certificate is issued before the date of commencement of the Act or that the project was not an ongoing project as on the date of commencement of the RERA to avoid registration under Section 3.
(iii) If the Promoters could not prove the existence of Occupancy Certificates and dates of issuance of the Occupancy Certificates, the Commission Report, Expert Report and Sketches are definitely material pieces of evidence to decide whether the project was an ongoing one or not as on the date of commencement of the RERA.