Mumbai: Relief for small housing societies

More than 50000 housing societies in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra with fewer than 50 members will now be allowed to have their managing committee elected without needing to fill the mandated reserved category posts The State Housing Department revised its earlier circular dated January 3 2024 wherein they had initially brought down the minimum number of committee members from 11 to 5 and had only kept one seat for candidates from the open category and the remaining four seats were reserved SCST OBC VJNT and woman candidateAfter the middayrsquos report and housing activists including the state housing federation expressing their anguish the housing department was forced to issue a new circular on February 28 wherein they removed all reserved seats other than two seats reserved for women irrespective of castecreedreligion and five members from the general category for all societies across MMR and the stateAlso Read How unwitting consumption of coil emissions may lead to lung diseasesAdvocate Shreeprasad ParabldquoSmall societies which were struggling to have their managing committee appointed due to the nonavailability of reserved category members were handled by the administrator and flat owners were at their mercy This will bring an end to such a practicerdquo said a housing federation officialMuchneeded reliefThanking midday for raising the concern of the common man State Housing Federation Expert Director Advocate Shreeprasad Parab said ldquoThe latest circular brings in the muchneeded relief to societies with less than 50 members At present Maharashtra has 125 lakh registered housing societies of which Mumbai and MMR has around 65 per cent to 70 per cent of the societies registered fewer than 250 and more than 250 membersrdquoNo reserved category for less than 50 members housing society According to the February 28 government resolution housing societies with fewer than 50 members no longer need reserved category seats Now there are 7 seats needed 2 reserved for women and 5 for the general category If no women contest only 5 seats will be filled A minimum of 3 members is required for meetingsAdministratorOlder societies often struggle to form a full managing committee leading to the appointment of an external administrator Without this new circular administrators could misuse their power making decisions without transparency and fairness and residents would have no say in important matters like repairs or redevelopmentCan elect its own MCldquoThe latest circular is not less than a revolutionary directive for cooperative housing societies with less than 50 members as most of these societies will be able to decide for themselvesrdquo advocate Parab saidWelcome moveCA Ramesh Prabhu from MahaSEWA welcomed the change saying ldquoThis is a welcome move as per the MCS Act 1960 even with five members instead of mandatory 11 members a cooperative housing society can be registered In a cooperative housing society it is difficult to get candidates under the reserved category even if such candidates are available they may or may not contest the election and thereby the post would remain vacant and there was no provision under the law to fill such reserved vacancy with other general category members As per the act minimum 23rd members need to be elected to constitute the committee and as these post remains vacant in a smaller society with less than 50 members the Cooperative Societies Registrar is compelled to appoint an Administrator who would man the society for rest of the period thereby derailing the very foundation of cooperative moment as the existing members had no say in the decisions of the administrator and most of the time such decision were arbitraryrdquoWiden circularPrabhu noted ldquoThe new circular allows for a committee with just three members It should apply to larger socities too up to 250 members Reserved category members could still join as additional members if they wish to contest electionsrdquoThe state federation raised two issues Constitution of Committee According to Section 154B192 of the MCS Act 1960 the committee is formed when more than twothirds of its members have been elected If twothirds is a fraction itrsquos rounded up Reserved Seats Section 154B22 of the MCS Act 1960 states that until reserved category members are elected those seats wonrsquot count for the committeersquos strength or the quorum for meetings Advocate Parab concluded that if reserved seats are unavailable or not filled the committee will be formed with more than twothirds of the general category seats as per ByeLaw No 114