RTI If Your RERA Builder Project Is Stalled or Delayed

A stalled builder project is one of the most financially and emotionally exhausting situations an Indian homebuyer can face. You have paid crores, sometimes borrowed heavily, and the construction has stopped — or crawled — for months or years. The builder's explanations are vague. The promised delivery date has passed. You do not know whether the project's funds have been diverted, whether any other buyers have filed complaints, or whether the RERA authority is even aware of the situation.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 created the framework for accountability. RERA authorities — MahaRERA in Maharashtra, TNRERA in Tamil Nadu, UP-RERA in Uttar Pradesh, K-RERA in Karnataka, and their counterparts in every other state — are statutory public authorities under their respective state governments. That makes them subject to the Right to Information Act, 2005. Every registration document they receive from a promoter, every quarterly progress report filed, every complaint lodged and every enforcement order passed sits in their records — and you can ask for it.

This guide explains exactly what to ask for, where to file, and what RTI can and cannot do in a stalled project situation.

Why RTI and Not Just a RERA Complaint?

This is the first question most buyers ask. RERA already has its own adjudicating mechanism: you can file a complaint against the promoter under Section 31 of the RERA Act. The Appellate Tribunal (REAT) exists for appeals. So why use RTI?

The answer is that RTI and RERA complaints serve different purposes and work best together.

A RERA complaint requires you to substantiate your claim — you need to show what the promoter was supposed to deliver, what was actually delivered, and what the authority has or has not done about it. RTI is the tool that builds that evidentiary record. You use RTI to obtain the certified copies of the registration, the progress reports, the complaint history, and the enforcement record — and then you place that material before the adjudicating officer or the REAT.

RTI also tells you things you may not know at all: whether other buyers have filed complaints before you, whether an inspection has already been conducted, and whether the RERA authority has quietly issued an enforcement direction that the promoter is ignoring.

Who Is the RTI Target — and Who Is NOT

This is a critical distinction that confuses many buyers.

The RTI target is the RERA authority, not the builder.

Private promoters and developers — no matter how large — are not public authorities under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005. You cannot file an RTI application directly with a private construction company, a housing finance company, or a developer's project office. They have no obligation to respond.

The RTI Act applies to public authorities: bodies established or constituted by law, owned or substantially financed by government, or performing public functions under government control. Your state's RERA authority fits this definition squarely. So does the local Municipal Corporation or Development Authority that issued the building plan approval.

File your RTI with the RERA authority, not the promoter.

RERA Authorities Are State Bodies: Second Appeals Go to the State IC

This has significant practical consequences. MahaRERA in Maharashtra is a state government body. TNRERA is a state government body. Every state RERA authority reports to the state government, not the Central Government.

This means:

• First Appeal: to the First Appellate Authority within the RERA authority itself
• Second Appeal: to the State Information Commission of that state — not the Central Information Commission (CIC)

If you are dealing with a stalled project in Maharashtra and the RERA authority does not respond to your RTI, the second appeal goes to the Maharashtra State Information Commission. In Uttar Pradesh, it goes to the UP State Information Commission. The CIC has no jurisdiction over state RERA authorities.

RTI to the RERA Authority: What to Ask

File your RTI application addressed to the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) or State Public Information Officer (PIO) of the relevant RERA authority. Many RERA authorities accept RTI applications online; check the official RERA website for your state. The fee is ₹10 under the RTI (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005.

You are not required to give reasons for seeking the information — Section 6(2) of the RTI Act expressly prohibits the PIO from demanding reasons.

Here are the key requests to include:

1. Registration details and status

"Please provide the registration details for the project registered as project name / RERA registration number, including: (a) the date of registration; (b) the original registered date of completion; (c) whether the registration has been extended and, if so, the extended completion date and the reason recorded for the extension; (d) whether the registration has been revoked and the grounds for revocation."

The registered completion date is fundamental. If the promoter told you possession would come in 2022 but the RERA registration shows a 2025 completion date, that is already significant. If the registration has lapsed or been revoked without your knowledge, that changes your legal options entirely.

2. Quarterly progress reports

Under Section 11(1) of the RERA Act, every registered promoter must update the RERA website quarterly with progress details. Under Section 4(2), the promoter must disclose the status of approvals and construction. These updates are filed with the RERA authority.

"Please provide copies of all quarterly progress reports filed by the promoter promoter name for the project project name / registration number for the period from quarter, year to quarter, year."

Progress reports will show whether the promoter has been updating the authority at all, what the reported construction status was each quarter, and whether the reported progress matches what you can see on site.

3. Complaint history

"Please provide details of all complaints filed against the promoter promoter name or the project project name / registration number before this authority, including: (a) the complaint number and date of filing of each complaint; (b) the current status of each complaint (pending, disposed, decided); (c) copies of orders or directions issued in disposed complaints, if any."

If fifty other buyers have already filed complaints and the RERA authority has passed orders, you need to know. This will tell you the state of the enforcement record and help you decide whether to file your own complaint or join a collective action.

4. Penalty and enforcement orders

"Please provide details of any penalty order, enforcement direction, or recovery certificate issued against the promoter name or the project registration number by this authority, including: (a) the amount of penalty levied; (b) whether the penalty has been paid or recovered; (c) any compliance report or inspection report submitted by the promoter pursuant to such orders."

An enforcement order that the promoter is ignoring is itself evidence of willful non-compliance, which is directly relevant to any adjudication proceeding you file.

5. Inspection and audit records

"Please provide details of any inspection, site visit, or audit conducted by officers of this authority in respect of the project project name / registration number, including: (a) the date of each inspection; (b) the inspection report or site visit report; (c) the findings recorded and directions issued, if any."

The 70% Account: A Crucial RERA Compliance Requirement

Section 4(2)(l)(D) of the RERA Act requires promoters to maintain a separate designated bank account and deposit at least 70% of all collections from allottees into that account. The purpose is to ringfence construction funds and prevent diversion. This is one of the most frequently violated RERA requirements in stalled projects.

RERA authorities are required to monitor compliance with this provision. You can ask:

"Please provide details of whether the promoter name for project registration number has maintained the mandatory designated account as required under Section 4(2)(l)(D) of the RERA Act, 2016, and whether this authority has received or reviewed the promoter's statements of the designated account for the period year to year. Please provide copies of any such statements submitted to this authority and any observations or directions issued regarding the same."

If the RERA authority has received bank statements showing the designated account has been depleted or funds diverted, that is evidence of a serious statutory violation. If the authority has not sought those statements at all, that itself raises a question about the authority's supervisory role.

RTI to the Local Body: Completion Certificate and Building Plan

Alongside the RERA RTI, file a separate application with the relevant Municipal Corporation, Development Authority, or Urban Local Body (ULB). These are state-level bodies and their second appeals also go to the State Information Commission.

"Please provide: (a) a certified copy of the sanctioned building plan for the project located at address / survey number / CTS/Khasra number, submitted by promoter name or under application number if known; (b) confirmation of whether a Completion Certificate (CC) or Occupancy Certificate (OC) has been issued for this project; (c) if no CC/OC has been issued, the current status of the application for the same; (d) copies of any notice of violation, stop-work order, or compounding notice issued in respect of this project."

The building plan and CC/OC status tells you whether the physical structure, if built, is even legally usable. A building without an OC cannot be legally occupied, does not receive formal water and electricity connections in many states, and cannot be registered. Buyers who receive possession without an OC inherit serious legal and practical problems.

When the Promoter Is Insolvent: The IBC Dimension

Some stalled projects involve a promoter who has been admitted to insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. When this happens, the dynamics change substantially.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which oversees insolvency proceedings, is a quasi-judicial body. It is not a public authority in the conventional RTI sense — RTI to the NCLT is limited and typically only covers administrative records, not the insolvency case file.

However, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) — a Central Government ministry — does hold records about companies. If you want to know whether a promoter-company is under insolvency, you can check the IBBI (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India) website, which is publicly accessible, or file RTI with the MCA:

"Please provide details of any insolvency or liquidation proceedings initiated against the company promoter's company name, CIN if known under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, including the date of admission, the name of the Insolvency Resolution Professional (IRP) or Liquidator appointed, and the current status of the proceedings."

The MCA is a Central Government body, so its second appeals go to the CIC.

Note: once a company enters the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), the IRP takes over management. The IRP is a private insolvency professional, not a public authority — RTI does not bind the IRP directly. Your recourse in that situation is primarily through the NCLT process itself.

What RTI Cannot Do in This Situation

RTI is a tool for information access, not enforcement. Filing an RTI application will not compel the builder to resume construction, return your money, or complete the project. The RTI response is evidence — evidence you take to the RERA adjudicating officer, the REAT, the consumer forum, or the high court.

The RTI Act also does not override the RERA complaint mechanism. If you have a legitimate grievance against a promoter, you should be pursuing the RERA complaint route simultaneously, not instead of it. Use RTI to build the record; use RERA to enforce your rights.

RTI also will not give you the promoter's financial records or internal communications. Those are not held by the public authority; they are in the builder's private files. What RTI gives you is the public authority's record of the project — the registration file, the compliance reports submitted to the authority, and the enforcement history.

Practical Approach: File Both RTIs Together

The most effective approach is to file both RTI applications — one to the RERA authority and one to the local body — at the same time. You will then have a complete picture of:

• The legal registration status of the project and its current completion date
• Whether the promoter has been filing required quarterly updates
• Whether other buyers have complained and what the authority has done
• Whether any penalty or enforcement action has been initiated
• Whether the building plan is sanctioned and whether the CC/OC has been issued

With that record in hand, a RERA complaint or an approach to the Appellate Tribunal becomes significantly more grounded. You are not arguing from ignorance; you are presenting a documented history of what the authority holds and what the promoter has or has not done.

The ₹10 RTI fee — and the 30-day wait for a response — is a small investment for the evidence base it can provide in a high-stakes dispute over your home.