Procedural fairness includes the right of parties to choose their mode of hearing, especially when both physical and virtual modalities are feasible.
Bombay High Court: In a writ petition seeking to streamline the process of execution of orders passed by the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (‘Maha RERA’) and to provide a mechanism for mentioning matters, conduct hearings immediately after filing of execution proceedings and expeditious disposal of execution proceedings, the Division Bench comprising of Revati Mohite Dere and Dr. Neela Gokhale, JJ., emphasised that the objective of Real Estate Regulatory Authority (‘RERA’) and Maha RERA is to provide speedy, transparent, and effective adjudication of disputes in the real estate sector. The Court stated that virtual-only hearings, when coupled with the inability to communicate effectively or mention urgent matters, result in systemic opacity and procedural delays. Thus, the Court issued certain directions to Maha RERA, including direction to restore hybrid hearings, permitting parties to opt for either physical or virtual appearance.
Accordingly, the Court gave following directions to Maha RERA:
To restore the facility of hybrid hearings, permitting parties to opt for either physical or virtual appearance, as per their convenience, within 4 weeks; To consider revisiting Circular dated 8-4-2025 and its Standard Operating Procedures, particularly with respect to the mechanism for urgent listing of matters; execution of non-compliance orders; mentioning of cases (physically and virtually) and pronouncement and publication of reserved orders. To implement the guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the Sarvesh Mathur case (supra) with respect to the hybrid hearing model of Courts and Tribunals. Maintain a register of praecipes submitted for circulation, production, or urgent listing, and record the acceptance/rejection of such applications; To upload its orders with a timestamp indicating the date and time of upload; Assign fixed dates for hearings and, in the event of an adjournment, indicate the next date of hearing; Maha RERA shall place in the public domain, through its website, the relevant procedures and contact information in a functional and transparent manner.
