RERA, 2016 was enacted despite 'Land' being a State subject. Discuss the constitutional basis and examine the federalism challenges in its implementation across States.

Though 'Land' and 'colonization' fall under Entry 18, List-II, Parliament enacted the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 by locating real estate transactions in the Concurrent List — making RERA a textbook case of cooperative federalism operating at the edges of legislative competence.

Constitutional basis of central enactment

• RERA draws power from Entries 6, 7 and 46 of List-III — transfer of property, contracts, and jurisdiction of courts respectively — since the Act regulates the builder-buyer contract, not land tenure or land use [1].
• The Centre legislates the framework; States retain the executive core — notifying Rules, appointing the Regulatory Authority and constituting the Appellate Tribunal [1].
• The Central Advisory Council, chaired by the Union Minister with State representation, institutionalises Centre-State consultation on uniform implementation [3].
• Consumer-protection safeguards — compulsory project registration before advertisement, 70% of buyer receivables in a separate escrow account, and penalties up to 10% of project cost — flow from this contractual, not territorial, basis [1].

Federalism challenges in implementation

• Dilution through State Rules: States were to notify Rules by 1 May 2017; several diluted the parent Act's rigour, and Nagaland had still not notified Rules years later [1].
• Asymmetric institutional capacity: Appellate Tribunals were set up in fewer States/UTs than Regulatory Authorities, and many function on an interim basis with officials holding additional charge, weakening adjudication [2].
• Uneven enforcement: complaint disposal, order compliance and portal transparency vary widely, producing a fragmented national market instead of a uniform one [3].
• Judicial friction: State variants have been challenged for encroaching on the central scheme, notably the striking down of West Bengal's parallel housing law.
• Coordination deficit: overlap with the IBC on stalled projects blurs remedies for homebuyers.

RERA thus shows that legislative competence is easier to establish than administrative uniformity. Strengthening full-time regulators, aligning divergent State Rules with the parent Act, and scaling the Unified RERA Portal into a real-time national database [3] can convert a contested competence into genuine cooperative federalism — securing the homebuyer's dignity that the Act was meant to protect.