India, April 8 -- The Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (KRERA) has clarified in a ruling that projects that applied for Occupancy Certificates (OC) before the state RERA Act came into effect are not required to register under KRERA.

This clarification came during a case involving Hamilton Homes, a residential project by SJR Prime Corporation, in south Bengaluru's Electronic City, where homebuyers had filed complaints about registering incomplete flats. Of the 359 flats, 120 remained unfinished to date.

Although the developer applied for an OC in 2016 and received it in May 2017-just weeks before KRERA was implemented-buyers argued that essential infrastructure such as water supply and sewage treatment were missing until well i...