A Division Bench of Justices V. Kameswar Rao and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora has dismissed Omaxe's Section 37 appeals against a Commercial Court order upholding two arbitral awards that granted homebuyer Asha Saini 15% per annum compensation for delayed possession of two flats booked in 2006 in Omaxe's 'Omaxe North Avenue' project in Bahadurgarh.
The Court rejected Omaxe's central argument — that a homebuyer who chose arbitration under a builder-buyer agreement's arbitration clause has fewer substantive rights than one proceeding under RERA or the Consumer Protection Act — and imposed Rs. 1 lakh costs on each appeal, signalling the Court's view that the argument was without genuine merit and was raised largely to further delay payment.
The ruling confirms that homebuyers pursuing delay-compensation claims through arbitration are not disadvantaged compared to those using RERA or consumer fora, meaning arbitral awards in builder-buyer disputes will receive the same appellate deference as awards in any other commercial arbitration.