By S&S Co. Advocates & Solicitors · Published 20 March 2026 · Informational content, not legal advice, see our disclaimer
Two Forums, One Grievance
A homebuyer with a complaint against a builder, commonly a delay in handing over possession, has more than one forum theoretically open to them. The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 gives the RERA Authority jurisdiction over possession delay, refund and interest claims against a registered project. The Consumer Protection Act gives a consumer forum jurisdiction over a deficiency of service claim, which can cover much the same grievance. For years, buyers and their advisors have treated these as interchangeable, filing in one and, if dissatisfied, trying the other.
A recent Supreme Court ruling involving the promoter M/s Kabra and Associates makes clear that this is a riskier strategy than it looks, because of a long-standing principle called the doctrine of election of remedies.
What the Doctrine of Election of Remedies Actually Does
Where two remedies are genuinely available to a party for the same grievance, and the party chooses one of them, the doctrine holds that the party cannot later turn around and pursue the other remedy on the identical cause of action. The idea is not to punish the complainant, but to stop a party from testing one forum, and if the result is unfavourable, trying again elsewhere on the same facts.
In the case before the Supreme Court, the buyers had filed a RERA complaint over a possession delay, then withdrew it while reserving liberty to file a fresh complaint before the same RERA Authority, and then instead pursued the same grievance before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. The Court held that the buyers had already made their election by going to RERA first, and that the specific terms of their withdrawal, which pointed them back toward RERA rather than toward a different forum altogether, meant they could not then pivot to the consumer forum for the same underlying claim.
What This Means Practically for a Homebuyer
The ruling does not close off the consumer forum as an option for real estate grievances generally. What it does is make the first filing decision far more consequential than many buyers may realise. Filing a RERA complaint and then deciding, mid-way, that the consumer forum looks more promising, is not a safe fallback once the RERA proceeding has meaningfully progressed, particularly where the buyer has already withdrawn that complaint on terms that point back to the RERA Authority rather than cleanly abandoning the RERA route altogether.
Buyers weighing where to file should think through the relief they actually want, refund, interest, possession, or compensation, and which forum is realistically better suited to deliver it, before filing anywhere, rather than treating the first filing as a low-stakes trial run. Builders and promoters, for their part, now have a clearer basis to resist a parallel or sequential consumer forum complaint where the buyer has already pursued the identical grievance under RERA.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I file in both RERA and the consumer forum at the same time, to be safe?
Filing in both forums on the same cause of action is likely to run into the doctrine of election of remedies once one proceeding has substantively progressed; the safer course is to decide which forum suits the grievance and pursue that one.
Does withdrawing a RERA complaint let me start fresh in the consumer forum?
Not necessarily. The terms on which a complaint is withdrawn matter: where withdrawal is on terms that reserve liberty to refile before the same authority, the Supreme Court has held that this still counts as an election in favour of that forum, not a clean slate to try a different one.
Does this ruling mean the consumer forum has no role in real estate disputes?
No. The consumer forum remains available for real estate grievances; the ruling addresses the narrower situation where a buyer has already elected the RERA route for the same specific grievance and then tries to switch forums afterward.
References & Further Reading
This article references the following statutes and a recent judicial decision. Case details have been cross-checked against more than one published source at the time of writing; readers should verify the exact date and citation against the official judgment for any specific matter.
- Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016; Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
- M/s Kabra and Associates v. Rekha Rajkumar Hemdev & Ors., Supreme Court of India, reported in legal media as decided on or around 5 March 2026, on the doctrine of election of remedies between RERA and the consumer forum.
- See our Legal News coverage and Real Estate & RERA practice page for further detail.