RERA Appellate Tribunal vacancy crisis taken care of: State assures Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court recently disposed of a plea raising concerns about filling a judicial member vacancy in the Kerala Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (RERA appellate tribunal) following the retirement of VK Babu Prakash from the post on May 27 [Social Justice Vigilance Forum v State of Kerala & Ors]..Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and S Manu had earlier disposed of the writ petition filed in the matter on May 24 after recording an assurance by the State that a new member has already been selected. This appointment would be notified as soon as the ongoing Lok Sabha polls conclude, the Court was told."The learned Special Government Pleader, on instructions, submits that the selection to the post is over and due to general election in the country, the appointment could not be made. It is submitted that, immediately after 04.06.2024, the appointment will be made. This submission is recorded. Accordingly, this writ petition is disposed of," the May 24 judgment stated. .The matter was mentioned again today (May 29) by the counsel representing the Social Justice Vigilance Forum, which had filed the petition. In response, the Court clarified that the May 24 judgment was passed after taking note of a May 23 Government Order (GO) which allowed retired judicial member, Babu Prakash to continue in his post until his successor is appointed after the polls. The Court proceeded to modify its earlier judgment and recorded that it is disposing of the matter in view of the State's May 23 GO..The RERA appellate tribunal - established under the Real Estate (Regulations and Development) Act (Act) of 2016 - deals with real estate disputes, particularly appeals challenging decisions of the RERA Authority in each State.According to Section 45 of the 2016 Act, the appellate tribunal should comprise a Chairperson and a minimum of two members - a judicial member and an administrative or technical Member.In 2020, Justice P Ubaid, a retired High Court judge, was appointed as the Chairperson of the appellate tribunal, while retired district judge, VK Babu Prakash and retired additional chief secretary, James Varghese were appointed as the judicial and technical members, respectively..The Social Justice Vigilance Forum (a registered society) filed its petition before the High Court days before VK Babu Prakash was slated to retire from the post of judicial member.The society raised concerns that it may take time to appoint a new member and that the State had not issued any notification to retain Prakash as the judicial member until then.This could hamper the tribunal's functioning and cause public inconvenience, the society had contended while calling for the High Court's intervention to resolve the possible crisis.The society had urged the Court to direct the State to notify that Prakash would continue as the judicial member until the process of selecting a new judicial member is completed.In response, the State informed the Court that the selection process has been completed, but that the appointment of the new judicial member could only be made after the Lok Sabha polls conclude on June 4, since the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is in force.On May 24, the Court took the State's submission on record and disposed of the writ petition..Advocates MR NandaKumar, Mayika Sundar, Arjun Anil, Asin VS and Anna Maria appeared for the Social Justice Forum (petitioner).Special Government Pleader Deepa Narayanan represented the State..[Read Judgment]