RERA Section 68 After the Jan Vishwas Act, 2026: Jail Term for Home Buyers Removed

Section 68 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 deals with a home buyer who disobeys an order of the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal. Until May 2026 that section carried a jail term of up to one year. The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026 removed the jail term and left a money penalty of up to 10% of the cost of the home. This article explains the change, the dates, what stays the same for builders, and what it means for a buyer in Bangalore.

What Section 68 Said Before

RERA uses the word "allottee" for the person who has booked or bought a plot, apartment or building from a promoter. Most of the Act gives that person rights, and a few sections place duties on them as well. Section 68 is one of the few penalty sections aimed at the allottee.

The original section applied when an allottee failed to comply with, or went against, an order or direction of the Appellate Tribunal. The punishment was imprisonment for up to one year, or a fine for every day of the default, or both. The daily fine could add up to 10% of the cost of the plot, apartment or building.

What the Jan Vishwas Act, 2026 Changed

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026 is Act 8 of 2026. It is a single law that amends penalty clauses across many central Acts, so that small or procedural defaults are met with a money penalty in place of a criminal sentence. Serial number 70 of its Schedule amends section 68 of RERA.

After the amendment, an allottee who does not follow an Appellate Tribunal order is liable to a monetary penalty that may extend to 10% of the cost of the plot, apartment or building. The one-year imprisonment is gone. The ceiling on the money stays where it was, at 10% of the cost of the home.

As an illustration, the ceiling on a home that cost Rs. 1 Crore is Rs. 10 Lakhs. The figure is an upper limit, and the amount in any case depends on the order passed.

Key Dates

The change moved from a Bill to law in force within six weeks. The main dates are these:

• 27 March 2026: the Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
• 1 April 2026: the Lok Sabha passed the Bill.
• 2 April 2026: the Rajya Sabha passed the Bill.
• 7 April 2026: the President gave assent, and the Act was published in the Gazette the next day.
• 7 May 2026: the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs issued notification S.O. 2287(E), which brought the RERA entry into force on that date.

The Act does not start on one day for every law it touches. Each ministry notifies the start date for its own entries, which is why the RERA change has its own notification. Other entries, such as the one for the Reserve Bank of India Act, came into force in June 2026.

How Large the Jan Vishwas Act Is

The Press Information Bureau's note of 4 April 2026 describes the scale of the law. It amends 79 central Acts administered by 23 ministries and covers 784 provisions. Of these, 717 provisions were listed for decriminalisation and 67 were aimed at ease of living.

The 2026 law follows the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023, which amended 42 central Acts and decriminalised 183 provisions. In RERA, section 68 is the provision that the 2026 notifications refer to.

What Stays the Same for Builders and Agents

The penalty sections aimed at promoters and real estate agents read as they did before. A builder who ignores the Appellate Tribunal still faces a prison term. The main provisions are these:

• Section 59: selling an unregistered project draws a penalty of up to 10% of the estimated project cost. Continued default draws imprisonment of up to three years, a further fine of up to 10%, or both.
• Section 60: false information in a registration application draws a penalty of up to 5% of the estimated project cost.
• Section 61: other breaches of the Act or its rules by a promoter draw a penalty of up to 5% of the estimated project cost.
• Section 63: a promoter who ignores an order of the Authority pays a daily penalty that may add up to 5% of the estimated project cost.
• Section 64: a promoter who ignores an Appellate Tribunal order faces imprisonment of up to three years, a daily fine adding up to 10% of the project cost, or both.
• Section 66: an agent who ignores an Appellate Tribunal order faces imprisonment of up to one year, a daily fine adding up to 10% of the cost of the unit sold, or both.

The buyer's side has one more penalty section, and it is also unchanged. Under section 67, an allottee who does not follow an order of the Authority is liable to a penalty of up to 5% of the cost of the plot, apartment or building. That section never carried a jail term.

What It Means for a Bangalore Home Buyer

In Karnataka, the Authority is K-RERA and appeals from its orders go to the Karnataka Real Estate Appellate Tribunal. A buyer reaches the Tribunal in two ways: by appealing against a K-RERA order, or by answering a builder's appeal. Section 68 matters only at the end of that road, when the Tribunal has directed the buyer to do something and the buyer has not done it.

Such directions usually concern money or possession. Section 19 of the Act makes every allottee responsible for paying instalments on time under the agreement for sale. It also covers the buyer's share of registration charges, taxes, utility and maintenance charges, and interest on delayed payments. A Tribunal order to clear dues or to take possession is the kind of direction that section 68 backs up.

For a buyer who follows the Tribunal's orders, the amendment changes nothing in practice. For a buyer who is weighing an appeal, it removes one worry: losing at the Tribunal can no longer end in a prison sentence under this section. The possible cost of defying an order is now a sum of money with a known ceiling.

What the Amendment Does Not Change

The amendment is narrow, and three points keep it in proportion:

• Tribunal orders remain binding. Section 57 lets the Appellate Tribunal execute its order as a decree of a civil court, so dues can still be recovered from a buyer.
• The 10% ceiling is a large sum on a Bangalore home, and it comes on top of whatever the order itself requires the buyer to pay.
• Refunds, delay interest and compensation owed by builders are recovered through the same process as before. The amendment has no effect on how fast a buyer's own order is enforced.

The appeal route also stays as it was. A buyer or builder who disagrees with the Tribunal may appeal to the High Court within 60 days of receiving the order, under section 58.

Follow-Up Changes to the Rules

Section 70 of RERA allows an offence punishable with imprisonment to be compounded, which means settled by paying a prescribed sum. The rules under the Act carry a table of those sums. With the jail term removed from section 68, that section no longer needs an entry in the table.

The Central Government has begun this clean-up for the territories it administers. On 1 July 2026 it amended the general rules for Daman and Diu and for the National Capital Territory of Delhi, deleting the section 68 row from the compounding table. Each state frames its own RERA rules, so any matching change in Karnataka would come through a state notification.

Points for Buyers in a Dispute

A buyer with a case before K-RERA or the Appellate Tribunal gains most from keeping the paperwork in order. The points below apply whether the buyer filed the case or is answering one:

• Keep the agreement for sale, every payment receipt and every demand letter, since most orders against buyers turn on unpaid instalments.
• Read the operative part of any order for what it asks of the buyer and the date by which it must be done.
• Act within the time given, or file an appeal within the appeal period, since the penalty applies to an order that is simply ignored.
• Take advice from a lawyer who practises before the Tribunal before signing a settlement or a waiver.