Jail, not bail for builders refusing to refund money: HC

Posted: Tue Aug 17 2010, 01:14 hrs
New Delhi:

Builders in the city doling out fancy promises to woo prospective buyers when they don’t even have the land deeds in place, beware. The Delhi High Court has ruled that “jail and not bail” is the caveat for realtors who receive money from buyers on the basis of promises which in reality are nothing but misrepresentations.

Justice S N Dhingra held that no such person, who refuses to give back money to the consumers even after his lies come out in the open, should be released on bail. “Cheating has become a profession these days. Builders often make false promises about the land and buildings and induce people to invest money in colonies, which exist only on paper, when in fact they do not have land or permission to set up colonies. This menace of cheating is increasing day by day and courts cannot take a casual approach towards those who had admittedly received huge amounts but are not prepared to refund,” said Justice Dhingra in his order on Friday.

The court was adjudicating a petition by Dr Raman Kumar Juneja, who was aggrieved by a sessions judge cancelling his bail on the complainant’s prayer. As per the FIR, he had claimed to be the absolute owner of a property at Rajpur Road in Civil Lines and entered into an agreement in July 2008 to sell it to the complainant. While Juneja received Rs 1.5 crore as initial consideration of the property, which was valued at Rs 6.75 crore, he allegedly kept on postponing execution of the sale deed.

Later, the complainant found out that Juneja did not have the title of the access road to the property and had misrepresented facts to induce him to part with the money, as per the FIR. When the complainant demanded his money back, Juneja refused and allegedly told him that the entire money had been forfeited.

While a magistrate granted bail to Juneja, the complainant approached a sessions court, which cancelled his bail last August. The Sessions Judge observed that prima facie it was a serious case of deliberately inducing the complainant to part with the amount by making false representation about ownership of the passageway to the property. The facts had disclosed that his intention was malafide from the very beginning, the judge added.

Juneja challenged this order in the High Court, claiming there was no valid reason for cancellation of bail. But Justice Dhingra refused to entertain Juneja’s arguments and said his intention from the very beginning had been to swallow the money or he would have not misrepresented facts to the complainant.

I wonder if Dr. Raman Kumar Juneja is a medical practitioner.
If so, this is an added feather in the cap of the medical profession.
Besides all the other malpractises like excessive billing, prescribing excessive medicines, back scratching (passing on patients to their fellow colleagues, connivance with nursing homes to conduct unnecessary operations and even billing patients relatives after the patient is dead (keeping the fact hidden), doing illegal business in organ transplant, aborting female foetus now they have started cheating the public by becoming builders.
I suppose this is all part of Hippocratic Oath.

But then we Indians are masters in making illegal money.
See how easily Suresh Kalamadi has done it in the CWG.
Forget the games and India's prestige.
We have to make money first.
The Congress party tries to distance itself from Kalamadi.
They forget, Kalamadi got this post because he was from the congress pary.
THE CONGRESS PARTY IS ANSWERABLE FOR ALL ACTS OF OMISSION AND COMMISSION COMMITTED BY KALAMADI.
THERE IS NO POINT NOW IN MANMOHAN SINGH LOCKING THE STABLE DOORS AFTER THE HORSES HAVE BOLTED.
THE CWG IS FINISHED FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES.
NEW ZEALAND HAS FIRED THE FIRST SALVO