MahaRERA Pune has appointed its Deputy Secretary to execute and register the agreement for sale of a Marvel Aquanas flat, after the promoters did not do so despite an earlier order. The buyers will still pay stamp duty. The order does not hand over possession.
Pune: When a builder takes the money and still will not sign the agreement, the usual MahaRERA order has often stopped at a direction. In a 17 September 2026 order, the Pune bench went a step further. Adjudicating Officer R. K. Malabade appointed Jayant B. Dandegaonkar, Deputy Secretary, MahaRERA Pune, as a “fit and proper person” to sign the agreement for sale on behalf of the promoters, and directed the Sub-Registrar to register it.
The non-compliance application, CC005000000167582, was filed by allottees Santosh Sethuraman and Laksmi Santosh. The project is Marvel Aquanas at Haveli, Pune, registered as P52100001521. The respondents, treated by the Authority as promoters, are Marvel Realtors & Developers Ltd., Chaitanya Kamal Infracon LLP, C.N. Sanghavi & Co. (Forwards) Pvt. Ltd. and Ideal Prime Realtors LLP. Only Marvel Realtors appeared, through Adv. Amit Patil. The other three were absent and filed no reply. The allottees were represented by Adv. Harshad Nanvare.
What the buyers had already paid
The allottees had first booked flat B-1302. After that allotment was cancelled, the promoters allotted B-1901 through email. The order records the agreed price of B-1901 as Rs 2,70,72,447. Of this, Rs 1,59,99,071 already paid for B-1302 was adjusted against the new flat.
The Authority records that the promoters had received more than 10 per cent of the cost of B-1901, and had agreed to give possession within 36 months. They neither executed a registered agreement nor put the allottees in possession.
Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, a promoter is not meant to take more than 10 per cent of the price without first executing a registered agreement for sale. That is the gap this case sits in: money was taken, the agreement was not registered, and a later MahaRERA direction to sign it was also not followed.
The 2024 order that was not followed
On 6 February 2024, the MahaRERA Chairperson had directed the respondents to execute and register the agreement for B-1901 in the names of the complainants, in line with the MOU, acknowledgement receipts and booking form, within 30 days. The September 2026 order records that this was not done.
The allottees then asked for a fit and proper person under Circular No. 50, so that the agreement could be signed and registered without waiting for the promoters.
What the builder argued
Marvel Realtors said the application could not stand. It argued that respondents 2 to 4 are also promoters, were not before the Authority, and that an agreement could not be forced against one respondent alone. It also said the original complaint had no alternative prayer for appointment of a fit person. Relying on the Bombay High Court ruling in Macrotech Developers Ltd. vs Joint Sub-Registrar, it said such a relief cannot be asked for the first time at the non-compliance stage.
What MahaRERA held
The Authority rejected that objection. It held that all four respondents are promoters of the project, that more than 10 per cent had been received, and that the 6 February 2024 direction had not been complied with. It said Circular No. 50 puts the appointment of a fit and proper person within its jurisdiction once a direction to execute and register an agreement is ignored. It found no merit in the argument that the relief had to be in the original complaint.
The operative directions are:
- Jayant B. Dandegaonkar, Deputy Secretary, MahaRERA Pune, will execute and register the agreement for B-1901 on behalf of the promoters, on the terms set out in the 6 February 2024 order.
- The Sub-Registrar must register the agreement signed by that officer.
- Stamp duty and other government charges are to be paid by the allottees.
- Before the agreement is signed, the allottees must file an undertaking or affidavit on whether any appeal is pending and whether the High Court or any authority has granted a stay.
- If a stay is in force before actual execution, this order will not operate.
- The non-compliance application was disposed of.
What Circular 50 says
Circular No. 50/2025, dated 18 November 2025 (MahaRERA/Secy/File No. 27/602/2025), is titled “In the matter of execution and registration of documents by a fit and proper person appointed by the Authority.” It came into force immediately.
It was issued after a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court, on 6 October 2025 in Writ Petition (L) No. 18256 of 2025, held that if an order to execute a document is not complied with, a fit and proper person of the Authority should execute and register it, with a specific direction to the Registrar of Assurances to register that document.
The circular’s standard operating procedure has two points. First, where a complaint seeks a direction to a promoter or an allottee to execute and register an agreement for sale or a deed of cancellation, and that party defaults, a fit and proper person of the Authority shall execute and register the document, and the order shall direct the Registrar of Assurances to register it. Second, the same procedure applies to pending non-compliance applications awaiting hearing and disposal.
The circular is not limited to buyers. It also covers a defaulting allottee, including in a cancellation. The High Court had drawn a line that still matters: MahaRERA cannot simply tell the Sub-Registrar to cancel a registered document on its own. The route is appointment of an officer to sign the document, after which the registrar registers what that officer has signed.
What this means for homebuyers
For the Sethuramans, the order removes the promoters’ signature as a bottleneck to the agreement. It does not, by itself, put them in the flat. Possession was part of the grievance, but the relief granted is execution and registration of the agreement.
For other buyers, the usable point is narrower than “MahaRERA will sign every stuck agreement.” Circular 50 applies where there is already an order directing execution and registration of an agreement for sale or a cancellation deed, and the directed party has defaulted. A buyer who has only a booking form, and no such order, still has to get that direction first. The September order also shows that MahaRERA Pune was willing to use the circular even when the fit-person prayer was raised at the non-compliance stage, and even when three of four promoters stayed away.
Two limits are written into the order. The buyers must pay the stamp duty. And if a stay comes before the officer actually signs, the direction will not operate. A registered agreement is still not a sale deed, an occupation certificate, or possession.
Also Read: MahaRERA Orders ₹724 Crore Recovery from Builders, Just One-Third of Amount Reached Homebuyers
