Managing Committee, Member Cannot Interfere With Right Over Property
Legally Speaking - Property and Housing Laws | By Solicitor Gajanan Khergamker
I am an owner of a residential premises in a cooperative housing society which I give out on leave and licence. I am being asked by the society to take permission from the managing committee before giving out the place on rent.
What is the procedure to do so, by law? Do I need to take any permissions from the cooperative housing society where my premises stand?
Also, can anybody from the society take objection to the work or gender of my clicensee. I have been asked to seek 'permissions' for the same through my society. Is it necessary?
- Samantha K, Bandra (West), Mumbai
Your issue isn't unique but extends to many members like you in some old housing societies across Mumbai and in certain cities particularly among highly-polarised and opinionated members across India.
The choice of licensee, their gender, marital status, food habits are always put into question, challenged and bullied into submission or extinction by some motivated majoritarians in cooperative housing societies across India.
All of this happens without the basis of law. Now, for the record, any property owned by an individual in a society, either in the form of residential or commercial premises, belong in all entirety to the share-holding owner member without the interference of anybody else in person or through a collective, however official, like a managing committee of a cooperative housing society.
You have the full and final rights over your premises and can exercise personal choice well within the limits as laid down by law.
No Managing Committee or another member can interfere with that right that is vested into you by the law of the land.
Your personal rights over your property must be within the ambit of the law - that is in accordance to the licensing processes as laid down by the industry in question such as the local civic authority for the shop and establishment processes and police clearances for the purpose of non-resident/out-of-town workers’ identification.
That apart, should your society's managing committee demand you seek permissions for the initiation of any new business or conversion to another, you must tell them to put it down in writing and immediately proceed to the Registrar, police and legal authorities making pertinent representations before them.
You are not compelled by, in your case, the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act or Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Rule or the Model Bye Laws, to submit such a demand. Nobody can act against your own interests with regard to your own property.
Any attempts to do so tantamount to a violation of your personal rights, fundamental freedoms and cooperative housing society laws.
Often, a few high-handed Managing Committee members, spurred by their own food consumption patterns, attempt to force a few members - usually in minority - to fall in line and comply.
This they do by passing wrong and illegal representation to the authorities such as police and civic on falsified grounds of 'nuisance' and even show 'resolutions' towards this action.
Any 'resolution' signed by any managing committee whether voted in majority or even in full, is illegal and must be ignored till it is ratified by the Registrar who is bound to act within the law. No cooperative housing society can decide who its members should give out their properties to, eat and trade with, over and above the restrictions laid down by law.
And, should any member or society feel that they are inconvenienced by the action of any such individual, they may adopt a legal route and file a case against the member after serving a legal notice. Forcing a member to comply by sheer force of numbers or threats of complaints and action isn't just wrong but invites relevant action under the law.
Any regulation, even if passed by a society in a managing committee or a general body, which infringes on the fundamental rights of an individual can be challenged in the court of law. The housing society regulations don't have the same stature as that of a law. Every Indian citizen has the right to reside anywhere in the country and discrimination is not allowed on the basis of religion, caste, sex, eating habits or marital status.
You may approach the police for threats or imminent interference with your rights as a free owner, or the court through a lawyer should you wish to file a suit against the society, the Registrar for harassment by the managing committee or any of its members or the Consumer Court for deficiency in service by the managing committee members and get an order for redress or compensation to loss of business as suffered.
This weekly legal column has been generated for The Draft News, Without Prejudice and In Good Faith. To book a Legal Consultation, Call 8080441593.
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