Now, attending general body meetings of your hsg society is a must

Make it a point to attend all general body meetings of your housing society. For, under the amended Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 members of co-operative housing societies who do not attend at least one general body meeting (GBM) in a consecutive period of five years stand to lose the privilege of voting and contesting elections.

Though experts welcome the provision as positive and expect it to bring in more transparency in functioning of cooperatives, property owners especially those working abroad or out of the state find it taxing.

Advocate Dnyanaraj Sant, secretary of Grahak Hitavardhini, a consumer rights organisation, said there is no provision in the act for members to nominate someone else to attend meetings on their behalf. A non-active member may become an active member after five years if he fulfills all eligibility criteria.

“It is not practical for everyone living abroad who own homes in India to come within six months of the closing of the financial year, which is the time period within which the GBM is supposed to be held. Most people come to India in December, when they get Christmas breaks,” said Anagha Bhise, a chartered accountant working in Hampshire, UK who owns a flat in Pune.

To whom the law is applicable

Housing societies registered under the cooperatives act, cooperative credit societies, cooperative banks, cooperative sugar mills, cooperative ginning mills and other institutions registered as cooperative societies under the cooperatives act.

Fundamental right

Constitutional amendment that led to the change: The 97th constitutional amendment makes it a fundamental right to form a co-operative society by inserting the words “or co-operative societies” in Article 19 (1) (c), which guarantees the right to “form associations or unions or co-operative societies”.

The amendments

Amendments to the Maharashtra 

Co-operative Societies Act, 1960

 The amendment makes it mandatory to hold a general body meeting (GBM) within six months of the closing of the financial year, i.e. before the end of September every year.

The term of office of elected members of the management committee is now five years. This is aimed at continuity in executive decisions. The term was not defined earlier.

The minimum number of members for the management committee is 7 and the maximum is 21. The Act has been amended to include reservations for SC/ST, BC, women, NT, in the absence of whom the seats will be filled by the other members.

The state government has been given the authority to constitute a state co-operative election authority, along the lines of the State Election Commission, which will be vested with quasi-judicial powers to take action against members who do not comply with the provisions of the Act.