Redevelopment of housing societies is set to be a smoother process as the high court, in a landmark judgment, directed that dissenting members of a society have to hand over flats to the developer and be held responsible for recovering the loss incurred due to their opposition. Real estate experts have welcomed the move as many such redevelopment projects are stalled due to this one hurdle.

CA Ramesh Prabhu, founder chairman of Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association, said, “When it comes to redevelopment of cooperative housing societies, many a times a few handful of members try to stop the process either by not giving the consent or by filing frivolous complaints or irrelevant cases. This not only delays the process but also increases the cost of the project as the builder has to continue paying rent to members who vacated flats while the cost of construction also increases.”