The Failure of the Odisha Apartment (Ownership & Management) Act in Providing Effective Legal Support for Apartment Ownership & Management and Its Inconsistency with RERA (2016): A Comparative Analysis with the Maharashtra Cooperative Model

The legal framework governing apartment ownership and management across Indian states has long been a complex patchwork of central and state statutes, judicial interpretations, and administrative practice. Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016 (“RERA 2016”) was enacted to bring uniformity and transparency to real estate transactions, including the creation of legally empowered associations of allottees and the conveyance of common areas to such associations. However, the efficacy of state-level apartment laws, particularly Odisha’s Apartment (Ownership & Management) Act, in giving full effect to these objectives has been subject to judicial scrutiny and criticism.

RERA 2016: Baseline Legal Obligations and Judicial Mandates

Under Section 17 of RERA 2016, a promoter is required to execute a registered conveyance deed in favour of the allottee along with the undivided proportionate title in the common areas to the association of allottees or competent authority, and hand over physical possession of the apartment and common areas within specified timelines after obtaining an occupancy certificate.  Schematically, this provision embodies three core goals:

• Transfer of ownership rights in common areas on a legally sound basis;
• Formation of a legally recognised association of allottees which can own and manage the common areas;
• Binding obligation on promoters to complete these formalities within statutory timelines.

The Supreme Court has reaffirmed that such conveyance and transfer duties are not optional niceties but fundamental obligations of a promoter under RERA.

The Odisha Act: Concept, Implementation Gaps & Legal Challenges

Legislative Intent vs Reality

The Odisha Apartment (Ownership and Management) Act (2023) was notified with the aim of harmonising apartment ownership laws in line with RERA 2016, and to empower apartment owners to legally manage common areas and affairs of multi-storey buildings.

However, in practice, both the Orissa High Court and stakeholders have repeatedly flagged statutory and operational deficiencies in the Act’s implementation.

Judicial Intervention: Orissa High Court Orders

1. Workability Questioned:
   In February 2024, the Orissa High Court directed the State Government to clarify whether the Apartment Act was fully workable and whether all requisite steps had been taken to give it effect, particularly in relation to registration of sale deeds and associations — signalling administrative inertia and uneven application of the law.
2. Supremacy of RERA Obligations:
   In May 2022, the same high court reiterated that transfer of common areas must strictly follow RERA’s requirements — i.e., conveyance to the association of apartment owners, and sale deeds that violate this principle cannot be registered. It criticised current practices under the state Act that permitted discordant sale deed registrations.

The PIL W.P. No.18799/2021 before the Orissa High Court famously underscored that certain Odisha Apartment Rules conflicted with Sections 11(4)(e), 11(4)(f), and 17 of RERA, leading the court to insist on RERA compliance until statutory clarity emerged.

Practical Gaps and Resident Grievances

Despite the Act’s theoretical promise, residents in Bhubaneswar and elsewhere have protested against builders retaining common areas and refusing to hand them over to associations even after compliance deadlines, necessitating court intervention to protect their rights.

These issues reveal a deeper problem: procedural ambiguity, administrative non-implementation (in sales deed registrations reflecting RERA’s conveyance requirements), and poor enforcement mechanisms have meant that the Act often fails to deliver the full legal empowerment that RERA envisages.

Maharashtra’s Cooperative Model: A More Robust Framework?

Unlike Odisha’s standalone apartment law, Maharashtra’s ecosystem marries the Ownership of Flats Act with the Co-operative Societies Act. Apartment owners in Maharashtra often form Co-operative Housing Societies which have been entrenched legal entities for decades and are well-supported by state administrative machinery, judicial precedent, and registrars.

Statutory Strength of the Maharashtra Approach

Under the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act, and the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, apartment owners routinely incorporate societies with broad juridical powers to manage maintenance, common areas, internal disputes, and redevelopment rights within a cooperative governance structure. Bombay High Court jurisprudence has upheld key aspects of this model, including enforceable rights on maintenance and statutory duties under the Apartment Ownership Act. Because the governance of apartment complexes in Maharashtra is effectively integrated into the cooperative societies framework — with well-developed rules, administrative oversight, and judicial backing — this model tends to deliver more predictable and enforceable outcomes for owners.

Judicial Endorsements and Cooperative Efficacy

Although not directly from the Supreme Court, multiple Bombay High Court orders confirm that rights and obligations within apartments — such as maintenance charges and share of undivided interest in common areas — are enforceable under existing cooperative and apartment laws, providing a pragmatic mechanism for dispute resolution and compliance.

The cooperative model also benefits from decades of practice, where incomplete transfers or non-compliance is often resolved through society governance mechanisms, Registrar oversight, or judicial review.

Supreme Court RERA Jurisprudence on Conveyance & Associations

Although there is no Supreme Court decision exclusively about the Odisha Act, there are authoritative rulings on RERA obligations that shape how apartment laws must operate:

• Many Supreme Court (Nahalchand Laloochand Pvt. Ltd. v. Panchali Co-operative Housing Society Ltd. etc) decisions and many RERA rulings underline that promoters must offer to execute and register conveyance deeds for common areas and apartments in favour of allottees or their association — a central RERA obligation.
• Multiple High Courts (e.g., Karnataka High Court in Commune 1 Society) have held that co-operative societies formed under respective state laws can function as RERA-mandated associations if statutory conditions are met — drawing attention to the need for clear alignment between state apartment laws and RERA.

The Supreme Court’s broader directives on strengthening RERAs, including in Mansi Brar Fernandes vs Shubha Sharma and allied cases, emphasize that RERA must function as the primary regulatory framework and that states must ensure effective compliance mechanisms — non-compliance is a matter for judicial correction.

 Conclusion: Why the Odisha Model Falls Short — and What Can Be Learned

The Odisha Apartment (Ownership & Management) Act represents a positive legislative initiative, but its failure to effectively operationalize RERA’s conveyance and association provisions has led to judicial pushback, administrative confusion, and homeowner frustration. Core issues include:

• Lack of clarity in registration procedures and a failure to harmonize with RERA’s mandates;
• Administrative delays that permit sale deeds and registrations contrary to RERA-mandated conveyance requirements;
• Insufficient enforcement mechanisms to ensure builders transfer common areas even where the statute says they must.

By contrast, Maharashtra’s cooperative society model — anchored in decades of established legal and administrative practice — has shown greater capacity to deliver the legal and managerial realities RERA seeks, albeit imperfectly. Other apartment ownership laws have failed without being able to provide genuinely effective and aligned provisions with RERA. Odisha and other states must not only legislate but also operationalize and harmonize those laws with RERA provisions, supported by strong administrative clarity and consistent judicial enforcement. Only then can homebuyers enjoy the full gamut of legal rights, clarity of ownership, and self-governance that modern real estate demands.

	Vidyadhar Durgekar
	An Advocate, General Secretary, Federation of Karnataka Apartment Owners Coop Societies Ex Dy Commandant A Bilingual Poet & a Novelist with published novels, poetry collections and articles in Indian & International magazines