Gurgaon Arbitration Council (GAC- Ombudsman), formed under the pioneering initiative of Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon

Gurgaon, July 13, 2015
The Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon graced the round table conference of REDCO Haryana which was held at DLF City Club, Phase IV, Gurgaon today. The round table was a congregation of administration of Gurgaon, leading private sector builders’ likes of DLF, Unitech, Supertech, Ashiana, Rahejas, Ansals, Ambience, Emaar MGF etc along with the heads of RWA’s. Mr. T.L Satyaprakash, Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon, Mr. Vikas Gupta, Municipal Commissioner of Gurgaon, Ms. Nazneen Bhasin, DCP, Gurgaon, Mr. Navin Raheja, MD, Raheja Group, Mr. Rohit Malik,Director,DEDL,Col Ratan Singh, Chairman, JAFRA were present on the occasion.

The DC announced the formation of Gurgaon Arbitration Council (GAC- Ombudsman) and appointed Col. Prithvi Nath Convener, VP and Secretary General REDCO Haryana and Chairman of REDCO Institute of Real Estate Management (RIRM) as Chairman of Arbitration Council (Ombudsman). This is the first public private partnership and more than 100 builders are part of it. The council is formed to address rising disconnect between the builder and citizens and to bridge the gap between them. The formation of Gurgaon Arbitration Council (Ombudsman) breaks fresh ground in encouraging Public- Private Partnership by liberating the private sector from the fear of law in cases of dispute referred to the Council by the District Commissioner is providing a platform for rapid resolution of cases at district level.

The Buyer/ complainant approach the Consumer forum for solving their grievances. This normally involves engagement of a lawyer by the buyer/ complainant. The Forum fixes hearings which may get prolonged and several dates are fixed and the case lingers on. Sometimes the opposite party does not honor the Forum decision and the case has again to be referred back and forth resulting in further delays. All this involves inconvenience and expense on the part of the aggrieved party. Therefore, the administration decided that such disputes be resolved expeditiously by the Arbitration Council (different from the procedure under the Arbitration Act). The concept behind the formation of the council was that it will be more like an Ombudsman/ a family court for reconciliation of grievances.

Mr. T.L. Satyaprakash, Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon said “This is a great initiative towards the welfare of the consumers. All good builders should collectively stand against the builders who are doing wrong and boycott them by creating peer pressure. Today most of the builders are not wrong but few wrong doers have maligned the image of good works which are being carved by the builders.”

“The builders are delaying the mechanism and the consumers are suffering due to it. Builders have to keep a good intension towards their consumers and towards what product they are delivering to their customers then only the mechanism for this ombudsman will grow otherwise not. Zone of possible agreement should be created.” said Ms. Nazneen Bhasin, DCP, Gurgaon.

Mr. Vikas Gupta, Municipal Commissioner of Gurgaon said “Most of the time the problem occurs to the consumers because of the failure of the builders in many cases. Competiveness among builders creates problems for the consumers. I believe that GAC will address all the grievances of consumers effectively. We should set a time limit pre-decided for the consumers, so that they understand that their problem would be fixed within a given time period.”

Mr. Navin Raheja, MD, Raheja Group said “The image of most of the builders is unreliable in the eyes of the consumers today, due to increase of fraud cases in the market now. There is a huge communication gap between the builder and the consumer. Misunderstanding between the builder and the consumer should be fixed first. I look forward to GAC and hope that this will enable confidence in the people and act as a trust building enterprise.”

Mr. Rohit Malik, President, REDCO, Haryana

briefed about the mechanism of GAC to the gathering and “GAC will not only fulfill the Supreme Courts direction of clearing the clogged legal system but also lead to a healthy respect for fair play in global Gurgaon, one of the successful cities in the race to meet the benchmark set by the government for a smart city. This will create a synergy between consumers, administration and the builders.” CCI Newswire