HC asks Registrar of Cooperative Societies to consider regularising eligible members of co-op society

The Delhi High Court granted relief to three persons, who have been living in a housing society in Dwarka for nearly two decades and are seeking direction to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies to regularise their membership in Mandakini Group Housing Society, saying it would not be fair to upset them at this late stage requiring them to vacate the flats.

The high court directed the three petitioners to forward to the Registrar of the Cooperative Societies, through their cooperative society, all the relevant documents for verification of their membership in terms of the law, as were enforceable on the date when they made the applications for their membership.

A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Dinesh Kumar Sharma directed the petitioners to deposit costs Rs 1 lakh in the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and provide copies of the receipts while forwarding their applications for verification of their membership to the Registrar of the Cooperative Societies.

The process of verification should be completed within six weeks of the relevant documents being forwarded by the cooperative societies, the bench said.

The court said if it is found that each of these petitioners were otherwise qualified to become members on the date when they made their applications by reference to the provisions of the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act and the Rules as they were operating on the date when such applications were made, the Registrar of the Cooperative Societies shall proceed to regularise the membership.

The court noted that the petitioners, represented through advocate Anuj Dhir, were enrolled as members of the Mandakini Group Housing Society in Dwarka way back in 2004 and the decision to enrol them as members was taken in January, 2005 which was communicated to the Registrar of the Cooperative Societies who issued a show cause notice to the society alleging non-compliance of the relevant rules.

However, apart from issuing the show cause notice, the registrar did not exercise his powers to issue any direction to the society and even when its management was superseded with the appointment of an administrator in 2014, he did not take any step to oust these petitioners from membership, it said.

“Had action been taken against the petitioners and the society aforesaid soon after receiving intimation in January, 2005, and in pursuance thereof the petitioners had been removed from the society soon thereafter, these petitioners would have looked for other avenues to acquire membership of either the same society or some other society, or otherwise, acquire other property for their residence,” the court said.

The bench said due to the registrar’s inaction over the years, the situation has emerged that the petitioners have been waiting for regularisation of their membership while having parted with the cost of the flat and while occupying the same.

“In our view, with passage of time, equities have been created in favour of the petitioners since it would be highly unfair to require them to give up their membership and the flats allotted to them after 18 years from the time they became members and paid for the flats that they acquired.

“They possibly cannot acquire another accommodation within same budget. In any event, the said society issued a public notice informing the public at large the particulars of the 8 members enrolled, including the three petitioners herein and inviting objections, if any, from the public. No member of the public objected to the enrolment of the said 8 members,” it said.

The bench added that though this cannot be considered as full compliance of Rule 19 of the Delhi Cooperative Societies Rules, 2007, at the same time the publication of the notice and the lack of response thereto shows that by not inviting applications in the first instance no grave prejudice has been caused to any member of the public.

“In these circumstances, in our view, it would not be fair at this late stage to upset the petitioners and to require them to vacate the flats so that a fresh process for enrolment of members could be undertaken in compliance of Rule 19 of the Delhi Cooperative Societies Rules, 2007,” it said.

The court passed the order on the petition seeking direction to the authorities to regularise membership of the petitioners in the Mandakini Group Housing Society in Sector 2 Dwarka here.

The petition said in this society, there were 7 vacancies upon resignation of 7 existing members and the society has enrolled 7 new members, including the 3 petitioners.

However, while doing so, it did not make compliance of Rule 19 of the Rules and a public notice was not issued to invite applications by all interested persons.

It appears that the society and its office bearers picked up 7 persons interested in becoming members and enrolled them as members. Thereafter, the allotment of specific flats was made to the 7 members by the society by holding a private draw of lots, the plea said.

The counsel for the Registrar of Cooperative Societies submitted that to condone the non-compliance of Rule 19 would lead to encouragement of backdoor entries and societies enrolling members privately without providing an opportunity to the public at large to become members of the Society.