The Allahabad High Court dismissed developer Aims Max Gardenia's appeal seeking condonation of a 721-day delay in filing its RERA appeal, and separately upheld the RERA order granting buyer Pratibha Gupta 24% interest for the builder's delay in handing over possession, imposing Rs 2.5 lakh in costs on the builder. The court found the builder's explanation for the multi-year delay in filing its own appeal unconvincing.
What this changes for a title check
The headline number for practitioners is the confirmed 24% interest rate for delayed possession, since RERA Section 18 ties a promoter's interest liability on delay to the same rate the promoter itself charges buyers on delayed instalment payments, and this judgment shows a court actually enforcing that reciprocal rate at the higher end rather than defaulting to the more commonly cited State Bank rate plus a small markup. A lawyer advising a delayed-possession buyer in Uttar Pradesh should check the specific interest rate the builder's own agreement charges for late payments, since that figure, not a generic benchmark, is what a buyer can actually claim back.
The dismissal of the 721-day condonation request is a separate but equally useful data point: it confirms Allahabad High Court is not inclined to excuse multi-year delays in a builder's own appeal filings without a strong, specific justification, which narrows the window a delayed builder has to reopen an adverse RERA order once it has become final. For due diligence on any project by this builder, the underlying RERA order and this appellate confirmation should both be checked as the final, binding word on the buyer's compensation entitlement.