If the builder appealed your RERA order in Karnataka, the order is not stayed by the filing, and the promoter cannot be heard until he has deposited with the Karnataka Real Estate Appellate Tribunal the whole amount the order directs him to pay you, interest and compensation included, or at least thirty percent of any penalty. That is the proviso to Section 43(5) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016, upheld by the Supreme Court in Newtech Promoters and Developers v State of Uttar Pradesh on 11 November 2021. The appeal had to reach the Tribunal within sixty days of the promoter receiving the order.
Part of the RERA and homebuyer disputes practice at S Jain & Attorneys, Bangalore.
This is for an allottee who has won at K-RERA and has now been served with the promoter's memorandum of appeal. Filing the complaint itself is in our guide on builder delay and RERA remedies.
| What | Provision | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit where a penalty was imposed | Proviso to Section 43(5) | At least thirty percent of the penalty, or more if the Tribunal so fixes |
| Deposit where you were awarded money | Proviso to Section 43(5) | The total amount payable to you, including interest and compensation |
| Time for the promoter to appeal | Section 44(2) | Sixty days from receipt, extendable for sufficient cause |
| Time for the Tribunal to decide | Section 44(5) | Endeavour of sixty days, reasons recorded if longer |
| Appeal fee | Rule 33(1), Karnataka Rules 2017 | Rs 5,000 by demand draft, banker's cheque or online |
| Second appeal to the High Court | Section 58(1) | Sixty days, on the grounds in Section 100 CPC only |
The builder has appealed my RERA order: is it stayed?
No. Nothing in the Act suspends an order of the Authority or the adjudicating officer because an appeal has been filed. Section 44(3) lets the Tribunal, after giving the parties an opportunity of being heard, pass "such orders, including interim orders, as it thinks fit", so a stay exists only if the Tribunal grants one after hearing you. Form R has a paragraph headed "Interim order, if prayed for", which is where the promoter asks for one.
The deposit and a stay are different things. In Newtech the Supreme Court quoted its own consumer-law ruling in Shreenath Corporation that a pre-deposit condition "has no nexus with the order of stay, as such an order may or may not be passed". A promoter who has deposited must still persuade the bench. Lodge a caveat the day the memo arrives: Regulation 7(5) of the Karnataka Real Estate Appellate Tribunal Regulations 2020 allows a caveat under Section 148-A of the Code of Civil Procedure against an expected interim-relief application, so no interim order passes without notice to you. Then oppose the stay on the merits.
Key takeaway. An appeal is not a stay. Until the Tribunal passes an interim order after hearing you, the K-RERA order stands and can be enforced under Section 40.
Does the builder have to deposit my money before the appeal is heard?
Yes, all of it, where the order directs a refund or interest to you. The proviso to Section 43(5) reads: "where a promoter files an appeal with the Appellate Tribunal, it shall not be entertained, without the promoter first having deposited with the Appellate Tribunal at least thirty per cent. of the penalty, or such higher percentage as may be determined by the Appellate Tribunal, or the total amount to be paid to the allottee including interest and compensation imposed on him, if any, or with both, as the case may be, before the said appeal is heard."
The Supreme Court in Newtech read that as two limbs: against a penalty, at least thirty percent of it, and against any order returning money to the allottee, the total amount with interest and compensation. It held the condition is not onerous and does not offend Article 14 or Article 19(1)(g), because promoters holding money found to belong to allottees are a class in themselves.
The Tribunal's Notification No.3(36)/JUDL/2020 of 16 December 2021 requires the deposit by demand draft or banker's cheque in favour of the Registrar, Karnataka Real Estate Appellate Tribunal, Bengaluru, with a memo naming the parties. Interest under a K-RERA refund order runs until final payment at the Rule 16 rate, the State Bank of India's highest marginal cost of lending rate plus two percent, which on SBI's table effective 15 August 2026 is 10.80 percent a year and moves with the table. The deposit must therefore be the order amount computed to the date of deposit, so check the deposit memo against your own computation.
Three things about the deposit that decide the first hearing:
Thirty percent is for penalties
The thirty percent floor applies only where the Authority imposed a penalty on the promoter. The Tribunal can fix a higher percentage under the same proviso.
Full sum for refund orders
Where the order directs money to you, the promoter deposits the total amount payable, interest and compensation included, before the Tribunal hears the appeal at all.
Draft in the Registrar's name
The Tribunal's notification of 16 December 2021 requires a demand draft or banker's cheque favouring the Registrar, K-REAT, Bengaluru, with a memo naming the parties.
What happens to the deposit when the appeal ends?
It goes to whoever succeeds, and in the public Karnataka orders it mostly goes to the allottee. In Appeal (K-REAT) No. 22/2021, a conciliation order of 12 March 2022 at a Lok Adalat sitting, the promoter had deposited Rs 1,14,43,280 when it filed, the parties settled at Rs 72,00,000, and the Registry released Rs 72 lakh to the allottee from the deposit and the balance to the promoter. In Appeal (K-REAT) No. 296/2020, decided on 19 March 2021, the promoter withdrew on a settlement and the deposit went to the allottee with any interest accrued, after TDS. In Appeals (K-REAT) No. 262/2020 and 379/2020, decided together on 15 February 2021, the deposit made "in compliance of proviso to Section 43(5)" was released to the allottees within two weeks.
Where the promoter succeeds, the deposit returns to it. The Kerala High Court in Confident Projects India v Kerala Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (W.P.(C) No. 27727/2024, decided 19 February 2025) held, reading Newtech, that the deposit is security for the allottee, that Section 58 requires no further deposit for a second appeal, and that the deposit therefore stays with the Tribunal until the High Court appeal is over. That decision is persuasive in Karnataka, not binding.
How long does the builder have to file, and can he file late?
Sixty days from the day the promoter received a copy of the order, under Section 44(2), and yes, the Tribunal "may entertain any appeal after the expiry of sixty days if it is satisfied that there was sufficient cause". Receipt starts the clock, not the date on the order. Regulation 5(5) requires the appellant to produce the certified copy served on it with the postal cover so the Registry can fix that date, and Regulation 5(6) requires a late appeal to carry an application supported by an affidavit. Your job is to pin the date: obtain the Authority's dispatch record, the e-mail and the postal tracking, and compare it with the date of receipt pleaded in the memo. A promoter served by e-mail on day one must explain on oath why the order reached its lawyers on day fifty.
Deadline warning. Your own sixty days run in parallel. If any part of the K-RERA order went against you, an interest date fixed later than you claimed or a head of compensation refused, file your own appeal within sixty days of receiving the order. The promoter's appeal does not reopen the parts you lost.
Can I execute the order while the appeal is pending?
Yes, unless and until the Tribunal stays it. Section 40(1) makes unpaid interest, penalty or compensation recoverable "as an arrears of land revenue", Rule 25 of the Karnataka Rules routes that recovery through the Karnataka Land Revenue Act 1964, and Rule 26 lets the Authority enforce any order as if it were a decree of the principal civil court or send it to that court for execution. Newtech settled that the principal sum is recoverable under Section 40(1), not only interest and compensation, so the recovery certificate can carry the whole figure.
Two forums running at once is normal. In Appeal (K-REAT) No. 33/2025, decided on 30 June 2026, the Tribunal held that execution under Section 40 and penalty under Section 63 "are distinct and operate in different fields", that an unexecuted Revenue Recovery Certificate is no bar to a fresh complaint for penalty under Section 63, and directed the Authority to impose on the promoter and its directors a penalty that may extend to five percent of the estimated project cost. So you can apply for a recovery certificate during the appeal, and file a Section 63 complaint if the promoter ignores the order. The civil court stage is in our guide on execution of a money decree.
What actually happens at the tribunal?
A two-member bench, a paper-book appeal, and a hearing that turns almost entirely on the record that was before the Authority. The Tribunal sits at Mission Road, Bengaluru, for the whole state, and has functioned from 3 January 2020. Section 43(3) requires every bench to include a Judicial Member and an Administrative or Technical Member, and Section 56 lets you appear in person or through an advocate, a chartered accountant, a company secretary or a cost accountant.
The appeal is e-filed in Form R on the RERA Karnataka portal and furnished in triplicate at the counter with an authenticated copy of the order, the documents relied on and an index (Rule 33(2)), the Rs 5,000 fee and a vakalath. New documents need an application under Order 41 Rule 27 of the Code, on notice to you (Regulation 5(10)), and new grounds need leave (Regulation 10). Your objections are due within seven days of the order permitting them, in three copies (Regulation 9(6)).
On time, the statute asks for sixty days and the Tribunal records reasons when it takes longer, as it did in Appeal (K-REAT) No. 104/2020 (23 April 2021), citing the time spent securing the parties, a settlement attempt and the lockdown. In the public decisions read for this article the gap between the K-RERA order and the Tribunal's final order ran from under a year to about three and a half years. There is no fee for a respondent, only the vakalath, copying at Rs 2 a page and professional fees agreed case by case.
The allottee's sequence, from the day the memo is served:
- Collect the memorandum and the deposit memo, and note the date the promoter says it received the order.
- Lodge a caveat under Regulation 7(5).
- Compute the amount due to the date of deposit at the Rule 16 rate and plead any shortfall in your objections.
- File vakalath and objections in time, in three copies, and decide within your own sixty days whether to file a separate appeal.
- Oppose any stay on the merits, and apply to the Authority for recovery under Section 40 unless a stay is granted or the full sum is with the Tribunal.
- Attend every hearing, weigh a Lok Adalat settlement paid from the deposit, and on judgment file a memo with your PAN and bank details for release.
What if I want to appeal too?
File your own appeal within your own sixty days, and no deposit is required of you. Section 43(5) opens the appeal to "any person aggrieved", and the deposit proviso begins "where a promoter files an appeal", so it does not touch an allottee. Neither the Act nor the Karnataka Rules provide for cross-objections, so the safe course is a full appeal in Form R with the Rs 5,000 fee, and the Tribunal clubs the two.
The cost of not appealing is visible in Appeal No. 104/2020, where the bench doubted the adjudicating officer's reasoning on nine percent interest on a maintenance deposit but left the rate alone partly because the promoter "has not disputed the same by filing appeal or cross-appeal". The rule cuts both ways: neither side gets more than its own memorandum asks for. In Appeal (K-REAT) No. 61/2024, decided on 6 March 2026, an allottee's own appeal added the direction the Authority had refused, that the promoter close her subvention loan, because closing a loan whose proceeds went straight to the promoter is refund under Section 18, not compensation.
Common mistake. Treating the promoter's appeal as the place to raise what the Authority refused you. Regulation 10 confines an appellant to the grounds in its memorandum, so your grievances need a memorandum of your own, filed in time.
What the public K-REAT orders show about how promoter appeals end:
Settled out of the deposit
In Appeal 22/2021 the promoter had deposited over Rs 1.14 crore at filing, the parties settled at Rs 72 lakh, and the Registry paid it from the deposit.
Withdrawn, deposit released
In Appeal 296/2020 the promoter withdrew on a settlement and the Registry released the deposit to the allottee with any interest it had earned, after TDS.
No deposit for allottees
The proviso to Section 43(5) begins "where a promoter files an appeal". An allottee's appeal carries the Rs 5,000 fee and no deposit at all.
Can the builder go further, to the High Court?
Yes, but only on a question of law, within sixty days, and without a stay unless the High Court grants one. Section 58(1) allows an appeal to the High Court of the state where the project is situated, within sixty days of communication, "on any one or more of the grounds specified in section 100 of the Code of Civil Procedure", that is, a substantial question of law. Section 58(2) bars any appeal against an order passed with the consent of the parties, so a Lok Adalat settlement or a joint-memo order ends the matter. No deposit is prescribed at this stage. Promoters sometimes try a writ petition instead, to sidestep the deposit, as the promoters in Newtech did before the Supreme Court sent them back to the Tribunal on condition of the deposit (see our note on writ petitions in the High Court).
The Tribunal's own order has teeth. Under Section 57 it is executable as a decree of a civil court, and under Section 64 a promoter who disobeys it is punishable with imprisonment up to three years, or a daily fine that may cumulatively reach ten percent of the estimated project cost, or both. The High Court litigation practice handles the Section 58 stage and the RERA homebuyer disputes practice the Tribunal stage, as one file.
What I tell allottees when the memo arrives is to stop measuring the appeal by its grounds and start measuring it by the deposit. A promoter who has put the full sum with the Registrar has conceded the one thing that matters, that the money exists and is reachable, and from there the argument is about the date interest stops and whether a settlement paid from the deposit is worth the months it saves. A promoter who is arguing about the deposit, or filing a writ to avoid it, is telling you the money is not there, and then the recovery certificate and the Section 63 complaint do more for you than anything said at the hearing. For the Section 18 choice between possession and withdrawal, see the short answer on what to do when the builder has delayed possession.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the promoter's appeal automatically stay my K-RERA order?
No. The Act contains no automatic stay. Section 44(3) lets the Tribunal pass interim orders after hearing both sides, so a stay exists only if the Tribunal grants one on the promoter's application.
What if the builder deposits only part of the amount?
Point it out in your objections with your own computation to the date of deposit. The proviso to Section 43(5) says the appeal shall not be entertained without the deposit of the total amount payable to you, interest and compensation included, and the Tribunal can direct the balance before it hears the appeal.
Can the Tribunal waive the pre-deposit?
The Act gives it no power to. In Newtech the Supreme Court upheld the condition and quoted its own ruling under the SARFAESI Act that a tribunal created by a statute cannot entertain an appeal without the deposit the statute makes a condition precedent.
Do I have to pay anything to defend the promoter's appeal?
There is no fee for a respondent. You file a vakalath with the welfare fund stamp, pay Rs 2 a page for certified copies, and agree professional fees with your advocate.
Does interest on my refund keep running during the appeal?
Yes. K-RERA refund orders direct interest at the Rule 16 rate until the date of final payment, and the release orders pass on any interest the deposit has earned with the Tribunal.
How long does a K-REAT appeal take?
Section 44(5) asks the Tribunal to try to decide within sixty days and to record reasons if it cannot. In the public decisions read for this article the time from the K-RERA order to the Tribunal's final order ran from under a year to about three and a half years.
Can I settle with the builder while the appeal is pending?
Yes, by a joint memo or at a Lok Adalat sitting of the Tribunal, and the settlement can be paid out of the deposit. Section 58(2) bars any further appeal against an order passed with consent, so the settlement is final.
Can I appear at the Tribunal myself?
Yes. Section 56 allows a party to appear in person or through an advocate, a chartered accountant, a company secretary or a cost accountant, and the public judgments include allottees who argued in person.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified advocate for advice on your specific situation.
