NEW DELHI: Builders have approached two high courts challenging some of the key provisions of the Real Estate Regulation Act (Rera), including bringing all “ongoing” projects under the law and penalties for failing to register such projects. They claim the provisions, which are retrospective, are illegal, since the projects were started when there was no such law.

While the Builders and Developers Welfare Association has filed a PIL in the Madhya Pradesh high court, Swapnil Developers has moved the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court.

The cases will come up for hearing in the next one week.

The Centre had earlier turned down the demand of builders to exclude incomplete projects, saying the law was enacted to bring relief to the crores of home buyers waiting for their flats for years despite making the full payment.

According to the law, incomplete and new projects have to mandatorily be registered with the regulator by August 1, failing which the builders face penalties.

Under the law, developers, most of whom are reportedly cash-strapped, have to give fresh timelines for completion of projects, and adhere to the schedule.

Sources in the housing and urban affairs ministry said Rera was not a law with retrospective effect since it covered projects that had not received a completion certificate by May 1, 2017. Secondly, the penal provisions took effect only after the law came into existence.

Till now, 22 states and seven Union territories have got proper or interim regulators, and real estate projects can be registered with them.