In Brief
The Supreme Court invalidated West Bengal's Housing Industry Regulation Act, 2017 as unconstitutional and repugnant to the Central Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. Both laws regulate the same subject matters under the Concurrent List and substantially overlap in their provisions. The Court found repugnancy because WB-HIRA creates an identical parallel regime to RERA without Presidential assent and omits key consumer protections (like judicial adjudicators for compensation disputes). The Court held that while States can legislate on Concurrent List subjects, they cannot enact laws substantially identical to Central legislation. Section 88 of RERA—stating it supplements rather than derogates other laws—does not authorize such parallel legislation. The prior West Bengal Act of 1993 remains impliedly repealed by RERA and shall not revive.
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