‘Society’s office-bearers kept us in dark for the past 10 years’

Indian Airlines Gagan Vihar CHS Ltd

No co-operative society can refuse to share information with its members, according to the state housing federation. Office-bearers who do not share information with members within 45 days also face a daily penalty of R100. A new amendment to the Maharashtra Co-Operative Societies (MCS) Act also has provisions for the disqualification of non-transparent committees.

Unaware of this, residents of Indian Airlines Gagan Vihar CHS Ltd, at JB Nagar, Andheri East, have been allegedly suffering for over a decade. Most occupants of the building's 40 flats are retired Indian Airlines employees who had bought the land and constructed the ground-plus-four-storey structure in the early 1980s. Today, the society also has a few private owners.

Residents claim that they have been deprived of their right to seek information and question office-bearers about the society's day-to-day functioning and are also not being allowed to examine society documents. Mandatory yearly annual general body meetings have also not been held in the last three years, they alleged.

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Letters that were sent to the society's office-bearers

Vinay Rao, a resident, said, "We have been asking for copies of audited balance sheets, minutes of meetings, society bank passbooks, copies of profit and loss accounts and the list of outstanding defaulters but our requests have never ever been adhered to by the office-bearers. We are paying monthly maintenance of approximate Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,500 for 1BHK flats and 2BHK flats respectively, but our building has not been repaired and is in a bad condition."

He added that the society lacks basic requirements like CCTV cameras and fire-fighting equipment and that a small green patch is not being maintained. "We even tried to send request letters via registered mail. Letters that were accepted by the society were never replied to and those that were not, were returned to us by the postal department," Rao added.

Asked the reason for the state of affairs, Rao said most society members were senior citizens who preferred to stay indoors and by default, the office-bearers had been unchanged for over a decade. "With talks of redevelopment underway, the office-bearers are not speaking out openly about their talks with contractors and builders, which is causing concern and ambiguity in residents' minds," he added.

According to Rao, most of the residents have given their flats out on rent, leaving a small number of owners on the premises, and the office-bearers were taking advantage of the situation, he alleged. "We had even sought the deputy registrar of co-operative societies' intervention, but the request is pending," he said.

Asked if he was aware of the latest amendment to the MCS Act, Rao replied in the negative, stating, "We are unaware about this, but we had resorted to the RTI (Right to Information Act) through the registrar, asking for specific documents, but this too did not yield any result." Attempts to contact the office-bearers did not prove fruitful.

Society can't deny info

Chartered accountant Ramesh Prabhu, founder-chairman of Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MahaSeWA), said, "Many societies are not transparent when it comes to sharing information with its members. Therefore, the MCS Act was amended by inserting section 154B-8, which provides the right to every society member to inspect documents.

Offence under MCS Act

Not providing information slated under 154B-8 is considered an offence of section 146 of the MCS Act and accordingly clause 146 (p2) has been inserted in section 146, which reads that if any officer or past officer or member or member of the committee of the housing society fails to supply copies of the document, as provided under section 154B-8, they will be committing an offence u/s 147, explained Prabhu.

Penalty from own pocket

If the information sought is not provided within the stipulated time period and once the office-bearers are found guilty under section 147 (p2), they are liable to pay a fine of Rs 100 per day after the expiry of 45 days and this may extend up to R5,000. The amount must be paid from the office-bearers' pockets and not the society fund, Prabhu added.

Disqualification provision

According to Prabhu, as per provisions of section 154B-23(1)(i), not providing information sought by members will also lead to a five-year disqualification of the said committee members from contesting the society polls, and the registrar can also dissolve the existing committee abruptly and can even appoint an adminsirator. "The idea behind this amendment is to bring transparency and thereby better governance in societies, irrespective of the size of its membership," said Prabhu.

Expert's view

Advocate Shreeprasad Parab, expert director, state housing federation said, "The aim of the managing committee is to provide common amenities and services to members of the housing society. However, in many housing societies, office-bearers consider themselves to be uperior and take undue advantage of their position. Unfortunately, residents are not well-versed with their rights and continue to be ignorant about provisions and latest amendments in law." He added that the state housing federation has now directed district housing federations to impart training programmes to educate members about these provisions.

1984-85
Year building came up in Andheri East