A contract of sale can be repudiated only by complying with the principles of natural justice, observed the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum when a builder sold a flat booked by the buyer to a third party on the ground that he had not paid the balance amount.

The cost of the flat was Rs 3, 60,000 and the buyer had paid Rs 3, 30,000. Mala fide was writ large in the builder's tearing hurry in selling the flat to the third party for a higher price without even informing the aggrieved original buyer of his intention to do so. It was as if the builder was waiting for default so that he could capitalize on the higher price the flat fetched vis-à-vis the price contracted with the original buyer.

In the event, the award of the District Forum as upheld by the State Commission to pay back the amount of Rs 3,30,000 with interest at the rate of 10 per cent per annum along with a compensation of Rs 3,00,000 towards deficiency of service and injustice perpetrated on the original buyer was upheld. In all fairness, the builder should have served a notice giving a reasonable time to the buyer to pay up failing which the flat would be sold to another person.

(The author is a Delhi-based chartered accountant.)

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