By Staff Reporter
The Fact:
By the present Petition filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, the Petitioners, who are the members of Respondent No.4-Co-operative Housing Society, impugn the order dated 30th September, 2024 passed by the Divisional Joint Registrar in Revision Application No.625 of 2022, by which the Respondent No.1 had quashed the no objection given by the Assistant Registrar to the Respondent No.4-Society to proceed further for the redevelopment of the Society through the Respondent No.5- Developer.The facts of the case are that the Respondent No.4-Society had appointed Respondent No.5 as developer for redevelopment of the Society by letter of appointment dated 14th August, 2022. The Co-operative Housing Society has been constructed prior to the year 1940 and is stated to be in urgent need of redevelopment. The Co-operative Housing Society consists of 62 units comprising of residential and non-residential premises. By letter dated 8th March, 2022, the Respondent No.4-Society had informed the Assistant Registrar that out of 62 members, 7 members have died and the legal heirs have not applied for transfer of the property and thus, the effective strength of the Society should be considered as 56 and not 62 for the sake of redevelopment under Section 79A of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 (short short, “MCS Act”).
The Judgement:
Para 17 For a person to be considered as a member of the Society, the admission to the membership is a must. The admitted position is that none of the legal heirs of deceased members have applied or are admitted to the membership. The statutory position upon death of a member has been laid down in Section 25 of MCS Act which provides for cessation of membership upon death. Therefore in light of the admitted position of death of seven members, they ceased to remain as members of the Society. The non-updation of the Society records by the Managing Committee cannot take away the fact of reduction of membership upon the death of seven members. Absence of subsequent transfer of the interest of the members upon his death in accordance with the provisions of MCS Act cannot be construed as continuance of membership of automatic admission of legal heirs as members of the Society. The mandate for the quorum is a percentage of members and not percentage of number of units of the Society and so construed the members who have expired are required to be excluded from the strength of the members. It is no answer to say that the records of the Society are conclusive proof of membership as provided under Section 38(2) of MCS Act in view of the admitted position of death of the members.
