When A Mohali Builder Ignores A Consumer Commission Order: How Enforcement Works जब एक मोहाली बिल्डर कंज्यूमर कमीशन के आदेश को नज़रअंदाज़ करता है: एन्फोर्समेंट कैसे काम करती है ਜਦੋਂ ਇੱਕ ਮੋਹਾਲੀ ਬਿਲਡਰ ਖਪਤਕਾਰ ਕਮਿਸ਼ਨ ਦੇ ਹੁਕਮ ਨੂੰ ਨਜ਼ਰਅੰਦਾਜ਼ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ: ਇਨਫੋਰਸਮੈਂਟ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਕੰਮ ਕਰਦੀ ਹੈ

A buyer who wins a refund or possession order against a Mohali builder often finds that the order alone moves nothing. The builder may simply not pay. For a buyer living in Canada or the United States, that silence can feel like starting again from the other side of the world. The Consumer Protection Act gives the commission that passed the order two ways to press for compliance, and a recent Mohali case shows both the reach of those powers and how long they can take.

A Sector One Fifteen case shows where non-compliance can end

The state consumer commission in Chandigarh has sentenced the managing director of a developer to jail for failing to obey its refund order, Hindustan Times reported on Thursday. The order concerned a project at Sector One Fifteen on the Kharar Landran Road and the refund order itself was passed several years earlier. The money was not paid within the time the order allowed, so the buyer applied to have it enforced. According to the report, the director was summoned under the penalty section, was later declared a proclaimed offender and was arrested the following year. A small part payment came this year, and the commission then recorded wilful non-compliance. The same report notes a separate jail sentence passed by the Mohali district commission in January in another non-compliance case.

The order can be executed like a court decree

Section Seventy One of the Act says: "Every order made by a District Commission, State Commission or the National Commission shall be enforced by it in the same manner as if it were a decree made by a Court in a suit before it". It applies the execution chapter of the Code of Civil Procedure, Order Twenty One, with the modification "that every reference therein to the decree shall be construed as reference to the order made under this Act".

In practice this means the commission itself acts as the executing court. Order Twenty One is the toolkit civil courts use against a debtor who will not pay. It includes attachment and sale of property. The buyer asks the same commission to enforce its own order, and the matter is heard there.

Non-compliance is also a criminal offence

Section Seventy Two, sub section one, says: "Whoever fails to comply with any order made by the District Commission or the State Commission or the National Commission, as the case may be, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than one month, but which may extend to three years, or with fine, which shall not be less than twenty-five thousand rupees, but which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both."

The section gives the commissions the powers of a judicial magistrate of the first class for these offences and says they "shall be tried summarily". A sentence punishes the person who disobeyed. It does not itself pay the buyer, which is why the civil route under Section Seventy One runs alongside it.

Why enforcement runs slowly

Both routes depend on finding the person and the assets. A director who cannot be traced has to be declared a proclaimed offender before the case can move, and an arrest can take months after that. Attachment needs property that is still in the company's or the director's name. A builder pleading hardship can make token payments that keep the matter open, and the commissions may send the dispute to mediation before passing sentence, as happened in the Sector One Fifteen case.

The penalty case is also a criminal trial, even if summary. The accused can plead not guilty and contest it, and an appeal lies under the next section of the Act. A jail term and a fine are what the section provides, while the refund itself still has to be recovered through execution.

What a buyer abroad can handle through a representative

Since the start of last year, consumer cases across the country have run on a single government portal, e-Jagriti. The Press Information Bureau says buyers abroad can file and track cases online through it. It adds that virtual hearings are now the default mode at the national and state commissions. Applications in an existing case are filed on the same portal.

That leaves most of the work in an execution matter with an advocate in Mohali or Chandigarh, while the buyer joins hearings by video when needed. An earlier Hindustan Times report this month shows the other side of distance: in a Sector Sixty Six A plot case, the developers were served by email, did not appear and had the order passed against them ex parte. Notice by email can reach a party abroad as easily as a builder at home.

A buyer who took a Punjab RERA order instead has a separate recovery route as arrears of land revenue under Section Forty of the RERA Act, which MA has covered earlier.

What the record shows so far

A consumer commission order can be enforced on two tracks at once: execution as a civil decree for the money, and prosecution for disobeying the order. The Sector One Fifteen case shows the penalty track reaching a jail term, years after the order was passed. It is one case reported in the press. It shows what the law allows and how long it took there. The pace in any other case turns on whether the builder can be found and what it still owns.

Related reading

- What Punjab RERA awards for delayed possession and how long recovery takes
- A Mohali builder told to refund or hand over a flat

Sources: The sources we use are listed on our Editorial Sources page.

This summary of Sections Seventy One and Seventy Two of the Consumer Protection Act draws on press reports of individual cases and is not legal advice. Any enforcement matter turns on its own order and facts.