Sections 7 & 8 RERA: When MahaRERA Revokes a Project Registration

Why Sections 7 and 8 Travel Together on the Exam

Section 7 tells you when MahaRERA can pull a project's registration. Section 8 tells you what happens to the half-built towers and the buyers' money once it does. The exam almost always tests them as a pair, because knowing the grounds for revocation is useless if you cannot say what follows.

Think of it as cause and consequence. Section 7 is the trigger. Section 8 is the fallout, and the fallout is where the money sits, which is exactly what the Authority exists to protect.

The Bombay High Court has upheld the constitutional validity of both sections, so there is no live challenge to the power itself. For a working broker this matters directly: a revoked registration changes what you are legally allowed to do with that project, and the exam expects you to connect the two sections without being prompted. Learn them as one topic, not two.

The Five Triggers Under Section 7

Section 7 of the RERA Act 2016 lists the grounds on which the Authority may revoke a registration. Verify the exact wording against the bare Act, but the heads are these.

False statement or wilful misrepresentation: a promoter declares a completion date he knows he cannot meet, or uploads sanction plans that were never approved. Failure to deposit in the designated account: the project breaches Section 4(2)(l)(D), which requires 70% of amounts realised from allottees to sit in a separate account for that project. You can see how the 70% account rule works out in rupee terms with a calculator.

Contravention of a major requirement of the Act or Rules: for instance, altering sanctioned plans without the two-thirds allottee consent Section 14 demands. Default on penalties: the promoter simply does not pay a penalty MahaRERA has imposed. And finally, any other ground prescribed by rules, which keeps the list open-ended.

What Section 8 Does With the Project and the Money

Once registration is revoked, the project does not just freeze. Section 8 gives MahaRERA a sequence of options, and the order matters.

First, the Authority may carry out the remaining development itself or hand it to a third-party developer. Second, the association of allottees may be allowed to take over and complete the project, often the preferred route where buyers are organised. Third, where completion is not viable, MahaRERA may direct the promoter to refund the money to allottees with interest and compensation.

The refund-with-interest outcome is the one the exam tests most often, because it ties straight into Section 18 and the buyer's right to walk away. If you want the interest mechanics clear in your head, the Section 18 interest at SBI MCLR plus 2% guide covers exactly how that figure is built up. Whether MahaRERA has ever actually used the third-party completion route in practice is not something I can confirm, so treat it as a statutory option, not a reported pattern.

A Note on Takeover Powers

Takeover by a third party or by the allottee association is easy to state and hard to execute, which is why candidates get tripped up. The Supreme Court, in a Bombay High Court matter digested in May 2026, held that takeover powers are not unlimited and are permissible only in specific situations, including a developer's failure to complete within time. That was in the SRA context under a different provision, but the principle carries over: a takeover has to be grounded in a real default, not convenience.

MahaRERA's own listing references an 'Order on Revocation of Registration of Project', but I could not access the full text or confirm its number and date. Before you rely on any MahaRERA-specific procedure for Section 8, pull that order directly from maharera.maharashtra.gov.in/circular. Do not quote a process you have not read. For the exam, the statutory three options in Section 8 are what you need cold.

What This Means When You Are Mid-Transaction

A revoked project shows up on the MahaRERA portal with a changed status against the registration number. Check the project page before every showing, not once at onboarding. A registration that was clean when you listed the flat can enter revocation proceedings while your buyer is still arranging finance.

If that happens mid-deal, your disclosure duty is immediate. Under Section 10, a real estate agent must not involve himself in a transaction without disclosing material facts, and a project heading into revocation is about as material as it gets. Tell your buyer in writing. The rules on warning buyers about project trouble  set out how far that duty runs.

Do not let a pending booking push you into closing quietly. If the status flips to revoked, the apartment you are selling is in a project the Authority has deregistered, and the ground under the buyer's feet has moved.

Why Selling a Revoked Project Can Cost You Your Own Registration

Section 9 governs the agent's registration itself, and it is the hook MahaRERA uses when a broker facilitates a sale on a project that has no valid registration. Push a deal on a revoked project and you are not just risking the buyer's money, you are exposing your own Certificate of Competency and registration to cancellation.

The money side bites too. Section 62 makes an agent who breaches Section 9 or 10 liable to Rs 10,000 for every day of default, up to 5% of the cost of the plot, apartment or building. You can model what that reaches on a given deal with the RERA penalty calculator.

The safe habit is simple. A project without a live registration is not a project you can market, advertise or earn brokerage on. Revoked status means stop, confirm, and only then advise your client on their Section 8 options.

Sample MCQs and What to Do Next

Test yourself on the points that come up most.

1. Section 7 of the RERA Act empowers MahaRERA to: (a) register a project (b) revoke a project's registration (c) grant completion certificates (d) fix stamp duty. Answer: (b).

2. Which is NOT a ground for revocation under Section 7? (a) false statement by the promoter (b) default on penalties (c) delay of one week beyond possession date (d) failure to deposit in the designated account. Answer: (c).

3. On revocation, MahaRERA may direct the promoter to refund money to allottees with: (a) interest only (b) compensation only (c) interest and compensation (d) neither. Answer: (c).

4. After revocation, a project may be completed by: (a) the association of allottees (b) a third-party developer (c) MahaRERA itself (d) any of these. Answer: (d).

5. An agent facilitating a sale on a revoked project risks cancellation under: (a) Section 7 (b) Section 9 (c) Section 14 (d) Section 59. Answer: (b).

Sections 7 and 8 sit squarely in the tested syllabus. Drill the paired cause-and-consequence logic on a full MahaRERA mock test, then take the one practical step that protects you daily: check project status on the portal before you show a flat.