Supreme Courts Raps PSG Developers, Seventh Heaven, Vian, etc. Of Misleading Advertisements

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre, all states and Union Territories in the country on a PIL seeking directions to the government that all builders, developers and property dealers should be directed to deposit all property papers with the publication through which advertisements are being issued in electronic as well as print media so that the buyers may cross check the claims.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P K Balasubramanyan and R V Raveendran issued notices on PIL filed by ‘’Sanrakshak’’ (the protector). Counsel for the petitioner K S Rana and Anil Karnwal contended before the court that these builders and land mafias had been defrauding general public of their hard earned money through misleading and fraudulent advertisements in mass media.

The petitioner has cited some advertisements issued by builders such as Seven Heaven for flats, while they did not own any land.

Vian Infrastucture Ltd issued advertisements in almost all national and regional daily publications about their so called housing project at Jaipur, Hardwar, Agra, Zirakpur, Indore, Neemrana, Udaipur, Mumbai and others and had allegedly collected crores of rupees while most of these projects were not approved.

Some other builders mentioned in the writ petition are P S G Developers and Engineers Ltd who have also duped the public of huge amount through such advertisements, J V G Group of Industries are also facing similar allegations.

The petitioner has also prayed to the court to issue directions to the Central government to set up a statutory regulatory body which shall examine each and every aspect of the claim made in the advertisements and it should only be allowed to publish with prior approval of the regulatory body.

The petitioner has also prayed to implement the recommendation by the Law Commission of India to insert a Sub Section 420 (b) IPC to make bogus advertisements as well as their publications a punishable offence.