Mumbai: Deputy Registrar Declares Dahisar Resident 'Deemed Member' After Housing Society Fails To Act For 11 Years
· Free Press Journal
Mumbai: The Office of the R- North, Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Mumbai, has ruled in favour of a Dahisar based resident who was denied membership by the society for a good 11 years. The orders passed by the deputy registrar declared Dahisar resident Nitin Raghunath Kamat a “deemed member” of Ketaki Co-operative Housing Society Ltd, thereby holding that the society had no business in delaying the membership transfer just because the family was going through some internal disputes.
The order, passed under Sections 22 and 23 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, holds that a co-operative housing society cannot indefinitely delay transfer of membership rights by citing internal disputes among family members.
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The dispute concerned Flat No. 104-B in Ketaki Co-operative Housing Society at Dahisar East. The flat originally belonged to Raghunath Anant Kamat and his wife, Jayanti Raghunath Kamat. Following Jayanti Kamat’s death in 2013, her legal heirs were her husband and their two sons, Nitin Kamat and Sudin Kamat.
MMRDA Nears Awarding Kolshet-Kalher Creek Bridge Contract; SMS Limited Emerges Lowest Bidder With ₹498 Crore QuoteAccording to the records, Raghunath Kamat executed a registered gift deed on May 31, 2014, transferring 66.66 per cent rights in the flat to Nitin Kamat. The latter subsequently applied to the society in June 2014 for transfer of membership and shares. However, despite receiving the application and supporting documents, the society did not communicate any decision on the request.
The society opposed the transfer on the ground that disputes existed between the two brothers regarding ownership and succession rights over the flat. It argued before the Deputy Registrar that, in view of the pending civil disputes, it had adopted a neutral stand and refrained from transferring membership solely in favour of the applicant. The society also contended that the application before the authority was filed after an unexplained delay of nearly 11 years and was therefore barred by limitation.
Rejecting these submissions, the Deputy Registrar observed that under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, a society is required to communicate its decision on a membership application within the prescribed period and that failure to do so results in deemed membership. The authority noted that the society had admittedly received the application in June 2014 but neither approved nor rejected it within the statutory timeframe.
Nalasopara Kidnapping Case: 17-Year-Old Girl Missing For 5 Days, Mother Accuses Police Of Delaying ProbeThe order further held that internal family disputes cannot be used as a ground to indefinitely stall membership applications in the absence of any court order restraining the transfer. It also rejected the society’s limitation objection, observing that the cause of action continued as no final decision had ever been communicated to the applicant.
Allowing the application, the Deputy Registrar directed the society to recognise Nitin Kamat as a member, record his name in the share certificate and society records, carry out the necessary mutation entries, and update the society’s “I” and “J” registers accordingly.
Nitin Kamat was represented by advocates Sulaiman Bhimani and Mitali Nibre of Mumbai-based law firm The Law Suits, who argued that the society could not indefinitely withhold membership transfer merely on the basis of family disputes when no restraining order from a competent court existed.
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