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Judgment
V.K. Jain, Presiding Member
The only issue involved in this petition is as to whether the petitioners had paid a sum of Rs.1,40,000/- to the respondents as transfer fee for the purpose of transfer of the unit in question in their name. Both the fora below having held against the petitioners, they are before this Commission.
Admittedly, the unit in question was initially allotted by the respondents to Tilak Prakash Kataria and Anjali Kataria vide allotment letter dated 16.10.2008. Clause 40 of the allotment letter reads as under:
"40. That in case of transfer of allotment / ownership of unit, transfer fee as prescribed by the Builder shall be payable by the allottee/s and he will also fulfill all other formalities as prescribed by the Builder."
It would thus be seen that if the original allottee Tilak Prakash Kataria wanted to transfer the allotted unit, they were required to pay such transfer fee as could be prescribed by the respondents.
The petitioners purchased the above referred unit from the original allottees Tilak Prakash Kataria and Anjali Kataria and claim to have paid Rs.1,40,000/- to the respondents towards the transfer fee. This is also their case that since the unit in question was under mortgage with HDFC bank at that time, it could not have been transferred in their name and therefore, the transfer was illegal. Admittedly, the mortgage was thereafter redeemed by paying the dues of HDFC Bank. Once the dues were paid, the allotted unit became free from lien of HDFC Bank on the said property and it became transferrable to the complainants. The transfer charges in terms of Clause 40 of the agreement, became payable once the unit in question was redeemed by the original allottees by making payment of the loan which they had taken from HDFC bank. Therefore, since the respondents are not asking the petitioners to pay any transfer fee, it becomes immaterial whether they had paid the amount of Rs.1,40,000/- to the respondents in the year 2012 or not.
The petitioner Mr. Sunil Kumar Joshi submits that even if the transfer fee was payable, it would only be Rs.10,000/- as was laid down by the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi vide its order dated 29.01.2007 in Kusum Lata Vs. Registrar Cooperative Societies, a copy of which he has placed on record. The decision relied upon by the petitioner is not applicable in this case since it pertained to transfer by a Cooperative society. On the other hand, in the present case the agreement, which the original allottee had executed with the respondents, obliged them to pay such transfer fee as might be charged by the respondent. Therefore, there was no prohibition on the respondents charging even Rs.1,40,000/- while allowing transfer of the allotted unit in favour of the complainants.
For the reasons stated hereinabove, the concurrent orders passed by the fora below do not call for any interference by this Commission in exercise of its revisional jurisdiction. The revision petition is therefore, dismissed, with no order as to costs.