Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, unlike cities in the South like Chennai and Bengaluru, has a very long tradition of apartment buildings. In the good old days they were mostly organised into co-operative societies of the open plot type. Such societies were mostly formed by middle-class people in need of accommodation. A number of them will join together and form and register as a co-operative society, purchase land, get loans from financing agencies, get the building with flats constructed, and then allot the flats to individual members. In due course builders started constructing buildings and sell the flats to individual purchasers. The flat owners register themselves as a co-operative society. There is a law that when certain percentage of flats is sold, the builder himself must initiate action to form and register a co-operative society. When all the flats are sold the builder will lease and it will be for the members to manage the Society. Besides co-operative societies there are also condominiums. The flat owners in this case will form an association, to manage the affairs and register with the Charity Commissioner under the Societies Registration Act. In Maharashtra every registered society has also compulsorily register as a Public Trust under the Public Trusts Act.
There is also, of late another trend. When the Government Housing Boards construct buildings and allot to applicants, the Board itself forms an Association of the applicant members, frame the byelaws and register with the Registrar of Assurances.
The co-operative societies will be under the Co-operative Department of the State Government. Each Municipal Ward will have an Assistant Registrar, who has the power of the Registrar under the Co-operative Societies Act. It is mandatory that each society should have its own byelaws, which should be approved and registered with the Assistant Registrar having jurisdiction. Any member having a grievance need only have to write to the Assistant Registrar, who will forward the complaint to the Managing Committee of the Society and ask for their comments. After receiving the reply from the Society the Registrar may call a meeting of both the parties and hear them. Any order issued by the Registrar after hearing the parties will have the force of the order of a court of law. Either party can appeal to the co-operative court if not satisfied with the order of the Registrar.
The grievance redressal mechanism is administered by the Charity Commissioner in the case of condominiums. But it is not as efficient as in the case of Co-operative Societies. One will have to approach the Civil Courts for redressal of grievances.
The apartment complexes registered with the Registrar of Assurances are the worst. They will always have to go to civil court only for redressal of grievances.
When looking at the grievances of individual members one should not lose sight of the other side either. The Committee of any Society or Association are only ordinary members elected to the posts. Like other members each one of them has his own vocation and he does the Societies work during his spare time and that too in an honorary capacity. There are also members, who harass the Hon. Chairman and Hon. Secretary. For a member it is his own case and he will spare his time to meet the lawyer and attend court hearings and he has to attend the court only where his own case is involved. But the Hon. Secretary has to spare his valuable time for all cases where the Society is a party. In many Societies it is very difficult to get nominations to the election of Managing Committee. Most members are selfish and look for their own interests only
In places like Chennai it is virtual anarchy that prevails. There are no efficient laws and politicians in power do not appear to be interested. Courts and judgments will help only if there are laws in the first place.
![Dr. MPS RAMANI Ph.D.[Tech.]](/img/avatars/my_avatars/84227.jpg)
