Supreme Court closes contempt of court cases against NCDRC members

The Supreme Court on Wednesday closed contempt of court cases against two National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) members who had issued non-bailable warrants against a realty company's directors despite the top court's stay order [Ireo Grace Realtech Pvt Ltd vs Sanjay Gopinath].A Bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah closed the case after Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani read out the members' fresh affidavit.The Court asked the members to be more careful in future and comply with all binding orders.It noted that it was not satisfied that the action of the members was a mere 'genuine mistake'.However, it asked that the NCDRC to change the coram for the concerned case before it."These are not issues to agitate over from either side. Nothing personal in it for us," Justice Kohli added..The Supreme Court had in the last hearing come down heavily on two members of the NCDRC for flouting a March 1 order to refrain from taking any coercive action against a real estate firm.It had issued a contempt of court notice to the NCDRC members, who had issued Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) to the company's directors despite the top court's stay order.The two NCDRC members, Subhash Chandra and Dr. Sadhna Shanker, were personally present before the Supreme Court today.While the members tendered affidavits explaining that their lapse was unintentional and inadvertent, the Court was not convinced by the same.Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar with advocate Roohe Hina Dua appeared for the realty company, Ireo Grace, against whose directors the NCDRC's contentious order was passed..The case before the Court has its origin in consumer complaints filed by homebuyers who were aggrieved by the failure/ delay in handing over possession of flats in Gurugram's 'The Corridor' housing project.After the homebuyers secured orders of compensation from the NCDRC, various execution proceedings were initiated by them before the national consumer form against the project developer, Ireo Grace.The project developer (Ireo Grace) then approached the Supreme Court with civil appeals challenging such an award of compensation.On March 1, the Supreme Court gave interim protection to Ireo Grace while issuing notice on the civil appeals. By this interim order, the Court restrained the NCDRC from taking any coercive steps against Ireo Grace.However, in one of the several execution proceedings initiated by homebuyers, a two-member Bench of the NCDRC passed an order on April 2, issuing non-bailable warrants against the directors of Ireo Grace after the company failed to file certain compliance affidavits.