Odisha RERA becomes defunct after only member retires, Real Estate News, ET RealEstate

May 12, 2025 Clicktoprints

BHUBANESWAR: Grievance redressal for homebuyers is likely to be affected with the Odisha Real Estate Regulatory Authority (ORERA), which has three members, becoming completely defunct on Saturday, following the retirement of its third member — who was serving as the acting chairperson — on Friday.

ORERA functions primarily with three senior members. Its chairperson, Siddhanta Das, resigned on Feb 28, just before completing his five-year term. On May 2, member (administration) Pradeep Biswal also retired. After Das’s exit, the housing and urban development department had appointed Gopal Chandra Patnaik, member (judicial), as the acting chairperson. He also retired on Friday.

With all three senior members having stepped down, ORERA has become non-functional. This has resulted in a prolonged stalling of the authority’s work, including hearing homebuyer grievances, and registering projects, plots and more.

The department, which had initiated the process of appointing the three new members before the current situation arose, is yet to finalise names. A senior official said that they have already issued the recruitment notification for the appointment of the three members. “We are in the scrutiny stage, and the names will be made final very soon,” he said.

Srikant Tripathy, a homebuyer, said, “The govt should have taken proactive steps to appoint the members and ensure ORERA’s continued functioning.”

Tripathy, who purchased a flat in Sunderpada, is now struggling to register his property and lodge a grievance due to the ORERA’s shutdown.

Swati Nayak, an allottee in a major real estate project in the city, recently approached the Supreme Court seeking to keep the authority functional. The apex court forwarded the matter to Orissa high court, which has issued a notice to the govt regarding expedited appointment of ORERA members.

Real estate activist Bimalendu Pradhan said that ORERA should not cease to function. “It has made some landmark judgements recently, which brought much-needed regulation in the real estate sector in Odisha, particularly in Bhubaneswar. It needs to keep going in the interest of the homebuyers,” he said.