A Completion Certificate That Did Not Count: NCDRC on Mohali's Purab Premium Flats
The NCDRC on October 8, 2026 held GMADA's 2024 completion certificates for Purab Premium Apartments, Mohali, not compliant with its 2023 judgment, ordered a fresh certificate with a definite date within 30 days, kept 6 percent delay compensation running till that date, and set when maintenance becomes payable. What Bengaluru buyers should check.
Purab Premium Apartments in Sector 88, Mohali, was built by a development authority, not a private builder. According to the allottees, it was launched in 2011 for 4,500 flats and scaled down to 1,620 flats in 27 towers. Allotment letters and offers of possession went out in June 2016. In 2023, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ruled for the allottees. In October 2024, the authority issued two completion certificates. On October 8, 2026, the Commission said those certificates would not do.
The order, in execution proceedings brought by the Purab Premium Apartment Allottees Association against the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority, was passed by Presiding Member Dr. Inder Jit Singh and Member Shashi Nandkeolyar. For Bengaluru buyers of flats from any developer, public or private, it addresses two practical questions: what makes a completion certificate count, and from when do you start paying maintenance?
The short answer. The NCDRC held that GMADA's completion certificates of October 18, 2024 were "not in full compliance" with its 2023 judgment, found "no application of mind" by the competent authority, and directed the Chief Administrator to re-examine the records and issue a fresh certificate with a definite completion date within 30 days. Delay compensation at 6 percent simple interest, fixed in 2023, continues until the completion date in that fresh certificate. Maintenance becomes payable from the later of physical possession or that completion date, and to the residents' association only once it actually starts maintaining. The trade-off: allottees keep earning delay compensation, but their maintenance start dates also hinge on the new certificate.
What was wrong with the 2024 completion certificates?
The Commission said they did not show whether statutory clearances such as a fire NOC and environmental clearance were in place, and noted that they stated: "This certificate is issued administratively purely on the basis of report of Technical Wing." It found no application of mind by the competent authority.
At the same time, it held that whether the works are complete, and from what date, is "essentially a question of fact" for GMADA's technical officers and competent authority, not for the Commission in execution. So it did not declare the project complete or incomplete itself; it sent the decision back with instructions.
The allottees' complaints, as recorded, included basement parking not handed over and unfit, no valid fire NOC, incomplete fire safety, community centre and stadium works, non-functional pool and sports facilities, and environmental issues, including environmental compensation of Rs 1.02 crore imposed on GMADA by the National Green Tribunal. GMADA said 17 towers were completed on June 30, 2016 and two more on May 30, 2017.
What did GMADA argue?
GMADA said its completion certificates were issued through a lawful departmental process. It argued that the 2014 notification governs because the works were completed in 2016 and 2017, and that the 2022 notification is prospective. It said the allottees' pleas on quality, deficiency and missing amenities had already been decided and given up, as recorded in the 2023 judgment. It also relied on the 2023 judgment's finding that, as a statutory body, it was exempt under Section 44 of the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act.
The allottees' account of the project's scale is worth noting too. According to them, a contract with Simplex Infrastructure dated May 3, 2013 covered the flats along with a sports complex, a community centre, 52 booths and sports facilities, estimated at Rs 715.50 crore, and the brochure promised a clubhouse, gymnasium, indoor swimming pool and badminton and table tennis facilities. The letter of intent gave 36 months for committed possession.
What did the Commission direct?
The Chief Administrator must re-examine all technical reports and records and issue a fresh certificate within 30 days of receiving a certified copy of the order, only if satisfied that all works are complete, and must record a definite completion date. The certificate must be supplied to the allottees' association, the residents' welfare association's office-bearers and other authorities, and put on GMADA's website.
Which rules apply depends on that date. If completion is before October 7, 2022, the guidelines of September 2, 2014 apply and the Chief Administrator is the competent authority; if later, the guidelines of October 7, 2022 apply and a committee chaired by the Chief Administrator decides.
| Issue | What the Commission directed | Effect for allottees |
|---|---|---|
| Completion certificate | Fresh certificate within 30 days with a definite date | Sets the date everything else turns on |
| Delay compensation | 6 percent simple interest until that completion date | Continues to accrue meanwhile |
| Maintenance to GMADA | From later of physical possession or completion date | No charge before both have occurred |
| Maintenance to RWA | From latest of RWA starting, possession or completion | Pay the body actually maintaining |
| Unsold units | GMADA pays RWA from when RWA maintains them | Developer shares the cost |
How does the maintenance start date work?
The Commission tied it to events, not to a demand letter. For the period GMADA maintained the project, charges are payable to GMADA from the later of physical possession or the completion date in the fresh certificate. Charges are payable to the elected residents' welfare association from the latest of the date it actually begins maintenance, physical possession, or the completion date. Where allottees in possession have enjoyed the association's maintenance before the completion date, they must pay the association from that date, and such disputes are left to the association and allottees to resolve amicably.
The Commission noted that under Section 17A of the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995, GMADA's maintenance role is temporary and passes to the residents' association. The allottees' association had also accepted that maintenance is payable to the residents' association once a completion certificate issues, so the dispute was really about the start date.
PropNewz explained the difference between commencement, completion and occupancy certificates in our guide to the three certificates, and who maintains a project before the association takes over in our explainer on maintenance before the association.
Why was a residents' association part of the case?
Because two bodies claimed the right to collect maintenance. The Purab Premium Apartments Residents Welfare Association, an elected body formed after a direction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, applied to modify an earlier clarificatory order so that maintenance would be collected only by it, to bar the allottees' association from collecting maintenance, and to require GMADA to pay maintenance for its unsold units. The Commission impleaded the residents' association in the two execution applications only, for the limited purpose of deciding to whom maintenance is payable.
As this case shows, an association formed to pursue claims against the developer and an association formed to run the building may not be the same body. The order's answer was to tie payment to whoever is actually maintaining the project, from a date fixed by events.
What did the 2023 judgment already give the allottees?
According to this order, the 2023 judgment fixed super area at 115 percent of covered area, excluding parking, plus covered parking area, and barred enhanced charges unless extra area was actually given. It awarded Rs 50,000 as lump-sum compensation per member for inadequate common facilities, Rs 25,000 in litigation costs in each complaint, and set delay compensation at 6 percent simple interest. It directed possession within 60 days and conveyance within 30 days.
GMADA's own estate officer had computed, in a letter of November 6, 2025, a total of about Rs 7.35 crore, made up of about Rs 4.98 crore in interest, Rs 1.05 crore in compensation and Rs 1.325 crore in maintenance adjustment, payable in quarterly instalments. The Commission did not adopt these figures and the order does not confirm payment.
What should a Bengaluru buyer take from a Mohali case?
Three things. First, a completion certificate is only as good as the checks behind it; one issued "administratively" on a technical wing's report, without showing statutory clearances, did not satisfy the Commission. Second, delay compensation in this case ran to the completion date, so the date on the certificate has real money attached. Third, maintenance obligations here began only when possession and completion had both happened, and were owed to whoever was actually maintaining the project. The checklist below applies these points to any purchase.
- Ask for the completion or occupancy certificate and read what it says it is based on.
- Check whether fire and environmental clearances are referred to or separately available.
- Note the completion date on the certificate, since compensation may run to it.
- Do not start paying maintenance until you know who is maintaining and from when.
- Ask the developer whether it pays maintenance on its unsold units.
- Compare super area charges with what was promised and actually delivered.
- Act through an allottees' or residents' association for execution proceedings.
Frequently asked questions
What did the NCDRC decide about Purab Premium Apartments on October 8, 2026?
It held GMADA's completion certificates of October 18, 2024 not in full compliance with its 2023 judgment, found no application of mind, and directed the Chief Administrator to re-examine records and issue a fresh certificate with a definite completion date within 30 days of receiving a certified copy of the order.
How long does delay compensation run in this case?
The Commission directed that delay compensation, set in its 2023 judgment at 6 percent simple interest a year, continues to be payable by GMADA to allottees until the completion date recorded in the fresh certificate. That makes the date on the new certificate financially important for every allottee.
When do allottees start paying maintenance?
To GMADA, from the later of physical possession or the completion date in the fresh certificate. To the residents' welfare association, from the latest of the date it actually begins maintenance, physical possession or the completion date. GMADA must pay the association for unsold units from when the association maintains them.
What should a Bengaluru buyer check in a completion certificate?
Read what the certificate says it is based on, check whether fire and environmental clearances are referred to or available, and note the completion date, since compensation may run to it. Confirm who is maintaining the project and from when before paying maintenance, and whether the developer pays for unsold units.
Last updated 2026-11-06. PropNewz Team.
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