Quick Summary: The Bombay High Court dismissed Kamla Landmarc's case because they skipped a required mediation step. The case involved a messy real estate deal that fell apart.
This case is about a development agreement from way back in 1995. Kamla Landmarc Real Estate Holding Private Limited and a group of other parties were involved in a redevelopment project. Things got complicated when Kamla Landmarc allegedly broke an agreement by giving rights to another party without fulfilling their responsibilities.
Kamla Landmarc was supposed to pay Rs. 44.87 crores and provide apartments to society members. But on December 5, 2023, they allegedly made a secret deal with another developer, leading to the lawsuit. The people who brought the case said this move was illegal and wanted the court to cancel the 2010 assignment agreement.
“The people bringing the case sent a termination notice...for various breaches including not paying the agreed amount.”
The people bringing the case argued that they needed urgent help and therefore didn’t need to go through pre-litigation mediation. But Judge Jitendra Jain didn’t agree. He noted that Kamla Landmarc took a long time to file the case, which showed there wasn’t really an urgent need.
Judge Jitendra Jain emphasized that skipping mediation wasn’t justified. He pointed out that the people bringing the case didn’t act quickly enough after discovering the breach, which weakened their claim of urgency.
“The actions of the people bringing the case...clearly indicate that even though they had filed the temporary application...the fear that not following Section 12-A would result in the defendants creating third-party rights cannot be accepted.”
The court rejected the case for not following Section 12-A of the Commercial Courts Act, which requires trying mediation before going to court unless there’s an urgent need for help. This means Kamla Landmarc might have to start over, this time following the rules.
