For a buyer who has paid Rs 1 crore for a flat that is a year late, RERA vs consumer court is a real fork in Maharashtra. One door is MahaRERA, where a complaint to the Authority costs Rs 5,000 and the interest for every month of delay follows a rate the rules fix. The other is the consumer commission, which for a flat at that price means the State Commission, where the fee is graded by the amount paid and the relief can include compensation and punitive damages. Both doors are open, but since March 2026 the Supreme Court has made plain that once a buyer has chosen one, the choice holds for that grievance. It is a choice to make once, and deliberately.
Key takeaways
- The Supreme Court held in Imperia Structures (November 2020) that RERA does not bar consumer complaints: section 79 shuts out civil courts, not consumer commissions.
- In March 2026 the Supreme Court held that buyers who had first gone to MahaRERA could not take the same cause of action to a consumer commission, though their first complaint never reached the merits.
- Under RERA, refund and interest are ordered by the Authority and compensation by the adjudicating officer; a consumer commission can order refund, interest, compensation and punitive damages in one proceeding.
- The consumer commission that hears you depends on what you paid: up to Rs 50 lakh the District Commission, above that up to Rs 2 crore the State Commission, above Rs 2 crore the National Commission.
- MahaRERA disposed of 6,945 complaints in 2025, 81 percent more than in 2024 and more than it received in the year, while a Lok Sabha answer of 4 December 2024 put the cases pending before Maharashtra's consumer commissions at 82,708.
Neha's two doors
Neha (illustrative, as our stories always are) was more than a year past the possession date on her 2BHK in a Mulund redevelopment project when she decided to file. A colleague who had won a refund at a district consumer commission told her to go there, because it gives compensation for harassment. Her lawyer asked first what she wanted at the end of it. She wanted the flat, and interest for every month of delay until she had it. Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.
Two facts settled most of it. Her agreement value, about Rs 1 crore, meant a consumer complaint could not go to a district commission at all; it would go to the State Commission. And the relief she wanted is the relief section 18 of the RERA Act writes down, at a rate the Maharashtra rules fix, before an Authority that had been clearing more complaints than it received. She filed with MahaRERA, knowing that the choice would hold.
The two doors, defined honestly
MahaRERA. Under section 31 of the RERA Act any aggrieved person, including an association of allottees, may complain to the Authority or to its adjudicating officer. Section 18 gives a buyer whose flat is late two choices: withdraw and take the money back with interest, or stay and be paid interest for every month of delay until possession, at the prescribed rate, which computing your delay interest claim turns into rupees. In Newtech Promoters (November 2021) the Supreme Court settled who decides what: refund and interest are for the Authority, while compensation, under sections 71 and 72, is for the adjudicating officer, a judicial officer who is or has been a District Judge.
The strongest case for it: it is built for exactly this dispute, the interest is a formula rather than an argument, an unpaid order is recoverable as arrears of land revenue under section 40(1), and a promoter cannot appeal an order to pay you without first depositing the amount.
The consumer commission. What everyone calls the consumer court has been the Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission since the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. A commission can order the price returned "along with such interest" as it decides, compensation for any loss or injury, punitive damages and costs (section 39), and the State and National Commissions may also declare an unfair term of a contract null and void (sections 49(2) and 59(2)). You may file where you live or work. An order is enforced like a court decree, and ignoring it is punishable with imprisonment of one month to three years, a fine of Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh, or both (section 72).
The strongest case for it: one proceeding can return the money, award interest and compensate the loss together; punitive damages and the power to strike down an unfair term are written into the consumer law; and it is the door for a dispute RERA does not reach.
Why you get only one
The Supreme Court answered the first half of the question in Imperia Structures (November 2020), rejecting the argument that RERA displaced the consumer law for flat buyers: section 79 of the RERA Act bars civil courts, and a consumer commission is not a civil court; section 88 says RERA operates in addition to, and not in derogation of, other laws; and section 18 itself gives the refund remedy without prejudice to any other remedy available. The proviso to section 71(1), which let buyers with consumer complaints pending when RERA began withdraw them and apply to the adjudicating officer, gave an option, not an obligation. The remedies are concurrent, and the choice is the buyer's.
The second half came in Kabra and Associates (March 2026). Buyers had complained to MahaRERA first, and that complaint ended with liberty to file afresh before the Authority, not with a decision on the merits. They then took the same cause of action to the consumer commission, and the National Commission held that complaint maintainable in an order of 23 August 2023. The Supreme Court set the order aside: having elected the RERA route, the buyers could not switch. The principle it applied, election of remedies, is stated in general terms. Where two remedies are open, a party chooses one and cannot afterwards pursue the other for the same cause of action.
Treat your first filing as your choice. Do not file at MahaRERA to test the waters with a plan to move later, and do not split one grievance across the two laws, interest in one forum and compensation in the other. In the March 2026 case, a withdrawal with liberty to refile did not keep the consumer route open.
Before you file anywhere, look the project up on ReraGenie: its free page shows the first promised possession date against the current one, every extension with the promoter's stated reason, and complaints with case numbers, which is most of the chronology either forum will ask for. Insolvency proceedings against the promoter are a third track, covered in the NCLT playbook.
The forums side by side
| Forum | Fee | Time the Act sets | Relief | Appeal route |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MahaRERA, the Authority | Rs 5,000 for a complaint | 60 days, reasons recorded if longer (section 29(4)) | Refund with interest, or interest for every month of delay (section 18); directions | MREAT within 60 days (section 44); a promoter deposits the amount payable first (section 43(5)); then the High Court on questions of law (section 58) |
| MahaRERA adjudicating officer | A separate application with its own fee | 60 days, reasons recorded if longer (section 71(2)) | Compensation, weighed under section 72 | As for the Authority |
| District Commission, paid up to Rs 50 lakh | Graded by the amount paid | Three months from notice, as an aim (section 38(7)) | Refund with interest, compensation, punitive damages, costs (section 39) | State Commission within 45 days; a party ordered to pay deposits 50 percent first (section 41) |
| State Commission, above Rs 50 lakh up to Rs 2 crore | Graded by the amount paid | The same aim (section 49) | As above, plus voiding an unfair term (section 49(2)) | National Commission within 30 days, 50 percent deposit (section 51) |
| National Commission, above Rs 2 crore | Graded by the amount paid | The same aim (section 59) | As for the State Commission (section 59(2)) | Supreme Court within 30 days, 50 percent deposit (section 67) |
The consumer fee is set by a table in rule 7 of the 2020 commission rules, replaced twice since, so read the current one before you file. The RERA route in detail, forms and hearings included, is in how to file a MahaRERA complaint, and the appeal stage in how MREAT appeals work.
What the numbers say about the two queues
Source: MahaRERA figures released on 5 January 2026; Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 1755, answered 30 July 2025, for the State Commission and district commissions in Maharashtra, all consumer disputes
MahaRERA disposed of more complaints in 2025 than it received, so its queue shrank. Maharashtra's consumer commissions, the State Commission and the district commissions together, disposed of fewer cases than they received in 2024, according to a Lok Sabha answer of 30 July 2025, and an earlier answer, on 4 December 2024, put the cases pending before them at 82,708, up from 49,136 at the end of 2019: about five years of filings at the 2024 rate. The National Commission, which hears flats above Rs 2 crore, disposed of 6,953 cases in 2024 against 4,546 filed.
Read the scale with care. The consumer figures cover every kind of consumer dispute, not only flats, and a disposal is not a win for the buyer. What the numbers describe is the queue a complaint joins.
An analogy: the specialist and the general hospital
MahaRERA is a specialist clinic for one family of complaints. It follows a fixed protocol and prescribes a standard dose: your money back with interest, or interest for every month of delay. The consumer commission is a general hospital. It treats almost anything and can prescribe more, compensation and punitive damages among it, and its waiting room is fuller. Both are good medicine. What neither allows is admission to both wards for the same illness.
The framework: six questions for your own case
- What do you want at the end? If it is the flat plus interest for the delay, or your money back with interest, section 18 writes that remedy down and the rules fix the rate; the rights under RERA for delayed possession set it out. If your loss runs beyond interest, such as rent paid while you waited, both routes can compensate, but under RERA that is a separate application to the adjudicating officer. If the grievance is a one-sided clause in the agreement itself, the State and National Commissions may declare an unfair term void.
- What did you pay? Under rules notified on 30 December 2021, the consideration decides the consumer commission: up to Rs 50 lakh the District Commission, up to Rs 2 crore the State Commission, above that the National Commission.
- Is the project under RERA at all? If it never came under the Act, for instance because it was finished before RERA began, MahaRERA may not be able to hear you, and the consumer commission is the forum built for it.
- Did you buy to live in it? The consumer law excludes a person who avails of a service for any commercial purpose, which hands a builder an argument against the buyer of an investment flat. RERA's definition of an allottee carries no such exclusion, and includes a later buyer who acquired the allotment by transfer.
- How old is the grievance? A consumer complaint must be filed within two years of the cause of action, unless the commission accepts a reason for the delay.
- Have you filed anywhere already? If you started at MahaRERA, that is your forum for this grievance. If you want to settle rather than fight, the MahaRERA conciliation forum is a step inside the RERA route, not outside it.
What the report adds to either choice
Both forums decide on documents. For any covered Maharashtra project, ReraGenie's Rs 499 buyer report puts the facts behind these questions on paper from the filing: the possession story, first promised date against the current one, which is the date your interest runs from; your rights under RERA, with a worked delay-interest example; and complaints and cases in plain words, showing whether other buyers have already gone to MahaRERA. It includes the project's filed documents as a ZIP and a free 90-day project watch, which emails you when that project's filing changes while your complaint is running. An order in your favour still has to be collected, which is its own stage: how recovery warrants turn MahaRERA orders into money.
This article is educational and not legal advice. For a dispute, consult a lawyer who practices before your state's RERA.
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