Telangana consumer forum directs Aliens Developers to refund money to flat buyers

HYDERABAD: In two separate judgments, the Telangana State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (TSCDRC) has directed Aliens Developers and its promoters — Hari Challa and Venkat Prasanna Challa — to refund Rs 18.5 lakh and Rs 15.87 lakh respectively to two aggrieved customers along with 9% interest for the last nine years.

A bench of Justice MSK Jaiswal and member Meena Ramanathan pronounced these two orders after hearing the petitions filed by Nirbhaya Kumar Shah and Abhishek Kumar, who paid a portion of the total amount towards the promised flats at Aliens Space Station in Tellapur on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

They were also aggrieved with their bankers which released a part of the loan without verifying if the flats were built or not. The flats were never constructed. The builder invoked force majeure clause and said they could not complete the work for reasons that were beyond their control.

A ‘force majeure’ clauseis a contract provision that relieves the parties from performing their contractual obligations when certain circumstances beyond their control arise, making performance inadvisable, commercially impracticable, illegal or impossible.