Ambiguity in hsg soc poll rules allowing takeover by administrators, say experts

The Maharashtra State Housing Federation and Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association MahaSEWA have raised a red flag pertaining to the framing of election rules for Etype housing societies where members are less than or up to 250 members in the stateThey have now sought clarity from the commissioner for cooperation and registrar cooperative societies as most such housing societies are in the process of conducting mandatory elections and varying orders from the cooperative department on the candidature of members generalreserved has raised ambiguity and expose an alleged nexus between cooperative department officebearers and thirdparty administratorsAdvocate Shreeprasad Parab expert director Maharashtra State Housing Federation said ldquoWe have brought to the notice of the commissioner two glaring issues in our letter issued two weeks ago pertaining to the election rules framed for Etype housing societies Some issues need to be clarified at the earliestrdquoldquoThere were many diverse orders from the authorities with regard to the constitution of the committee There were many orders from the authorities misinterpreting provisions of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies MCS Act thereby proceeding to appoint authorised officersadministrators An authorised officeradministrator was thus appointed for Hiranandani Garden Society in Powai for having less than 10 nominationsrdquo explained Advocate ParabAlso Read Mumbai BMC to lose Rs 1000 crore from property tax every yearRamesh Prabhu founder chairman of MahaSEWA said ldquoConsidering the unique features of housing societies a chapter for them XIII B Section 154B1 to 154B31 was included in the MCS Act on March 9 2019 Section 154B20 prescribes reserving three seats each in committees for SCST OBC and Special Backward Class SBC candidates Under Section 154B21 two seats are reserved for women in addition to the general category As per Section 154B192 the committee gets constituted after more than twothirds of the candidates are elected In a number of housing societies reserved seats remain vacant making it a challenge to constitute the committee This issue never gets resolved by the cooperative department because of its alleged nexus with administratorsrdquoldquoMaharashtra has over 125 lakh registered cooperative housing societies and the issues is rampantly witnessed in the MMR where administrators can get appointed forever especially in cases where cooperative department officials refuse to accept the nomination of general category people who form twothirds majority due to reserved members not residing in the society or contesting the electionrdquo explained PrabhuldquoThey the department deliberately appoint administrators who on an average are expected to oversee six to seven societies on a mere remuneration of R1500 to R2000 per month per society Once he gets control of a society the administrator appoints a manager on his behalf at a salary of R25000 per month of which a fixed cut goes to the administrator who may call for unwanted repairs Imagine the plight of members residing in small societies which will never be able to elect their own committee due to the nonavailability of reservedcategory members mandated under the Act This is unfairrdquo said PrabhuLandmark orderIn a case filed against Tilak Safalya Cooperative Housing Society at Tilaknagar for having only six membersmdashall from the general categorymdashelected to its committee Deputy Registrar Prashant Sonawane vide his order dated January 5 held that the newly elected committee was valid keeping vacant the reserved seats for which no nomination was receivedState Housing FederationSection 154B19 2 and Section 154B22 state that if the reserved seats are not available or if no one has been elected to them the committee shall be constituted as per Section 154 B19 2 that is more than twothirds of the generalcategory seats prescribed according to the ByeLaw No 114 explained advocate ParabldquoIf the above interpretation was not allowed many housing societies which have no reserved seat members will be in the hands of the authorised officersadministrators perpetuallyrdquo Parab concluded125LNo of registered coop hsg societies in the state