In Brief
The Supreme Court held that West Bengal's Housing Industry Regulation Act, 2017 (WB-HIRA) is unconstitutional and void as repugnant to the Central Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) under Article 254(1). Both enactments relate to the same subject (contracts and transfer of property) falling within the Concurrent List. WB-HIRA creates a parallel regulatory regime substantially identical to RERA, with verbatim reproductions of most provisions, establishing repugnancy by identity of subject matter. Additionally, WB-HIRA omits critical safeguards in RERA (such as District Judge-level adjudicators) and contains conflicting provisions on parking areas and definitions. The Court rejected the argument that RERA's "in addition to" clause permits parallel State legislation; such clauses allow only complementary or cognate laws, not identical parallel schemes. WB-HIRA also lacked required Presidential assent. The prior 1993 State Act impliedly stands repealed by RERA and shall not revive upon striking down WB-HIRA.
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