I am Mahaveer Chopra, staying in Mira Road. I needed an urgent legal advice on the subject of Co-owner becoming office bearer during Handover stage from builder.
We recently had a First general body meeting called by our Building to handover society which he had registered. In the meeting, one of the agenda was selection of provisional committee.
Here, legal consultant of lawyer said Co-owner is not allowed to contest as they are not authorized. It needed a proper process to be followed for accepting co-owner as part of committee members. Still, we all members knew that with this disqualification, some working members were not eligible so we requested Builder consultant to accept. Here, Builder consultant said if there is no objection and President approve it then they can do so by internal agreement. So, we accepted all co-owner as part of committee. There, selection of office bearer was not done and builder consultant told us to do it in 1-2 days in first committee meeting.
Before conducting First meeting for Office bearer, myself as First member and part of committee, studied about the concerned law and found there are lots of conflicts in accepting co owner as office bearer. It seems we can make them committee member but not office bearer during this stage. It seems to be a Silent Law. So we are now facing lot of argument whether Co-owner can become the office bearer or not, especially during Handover stage where we need share certificate and Authority to approve. Also, authorization of co-owner was not appropriate in GBM as mentioned below:-.
1.SCEI had approved the co-owner as committee members in Nov-2104 but they had put a condition that PROVIDED THEY HAVE NAME IN SHARE CERTIFICATE. However, we didnt have share certificate.
2.Prescribed NOC 10A is required to contest election which was not available during Election in GBM which makes them ineligible there itself.
3.NOC is applied to Chairman which was yet to be selected so nobody had right to accept Associate without Chairman of society.
4.Consultant also didn’t approve it and putting it on President and GBM. However, strenght of GBM was 95 out of 410. It is not sufficient to alter any law.
5.MCS act also doesn’t specify properly about associate member becoming office bearer.
So I argued strongly about the same and explained the co-owner that you become Office bearer once everything is in place and we do election of full-fledged society of 5 year committee but not at this stage bec the signature of first office bearer of society is very crucial. It is needed at various stage and institution of Handover, registrar, Banks , cooperation society etc. so we should not take any risk in that. If this would be challenged then entire society would be in a big risk.
However, these members fighting strongly and we have kept SGM in coming Sunday to clarify
this. So needed your urgently help. We are yet to select legal advisor which is possible only after office bearer selection so we don’t have any lawyer too for this clarification.
Request your urgent response and if needed, I am ready to pay for consultancy charges bec now these members are targeting me personally to raise this issue.
I C Naik
I am extremely pleased to witness a good fight for establishing the canon RIGHT is MIGHT and not the other way “MIGHT is RIGHT”
Congratulations. Redeeming factor is you are on absolutely right track.
At the outset let me clarify that the help I give to cooperators is to those genuine ones who have real problem and are willing to take trouble to use the help. No fee whatsoever is expected.
1.Associate member joining the Provisional Committee is not feasible except with the blatant breach of Bye Law No 117(d) [“non-submission of the no-objection certificate and undertaking, as prescribed under these bye-laws, by the Member “].
2.The MCS Act 1960 is clear about the associate member’s rights namely “A nominal member shall ordinarily not have any of the privileges and rights of a member, but such a member, or associate member, may, subject to the provisions of sub-section (8) of section 27, have such privileges and rights and be subject to such liabilities of a member, as may be specified in the by-laws of the society.
3.Sub-section (8) of section 27 (8) No nominal member shall have the right to vote and no such member shall be eligible to be a member of a committee or for appointment as a representative of the society on any other society.
4.Bye Law No 25 of 2014 Model provides “No associate membs ed from sub-section 2 of Section 24 er shall have any rights or privileges of an active member except as provided under Section 27(2) of the Act”
5.Section 27 (2)reads:” Where a share of a society is held jointly by more than one person, 2 [the person whose name stands first in the share certificate, if present, shall have the right to vote. But in his absence the person whose name stands second, and in the absence of both, the person whose name stands next, and likewise, in the absence of the preceding persons the person whose name is next on the share certificate, who is present and who is not a minor, shall have the right to vote.]
6.“It seems we can make them committee member but not office bearer during this stage. It seems to be a Silent Law” This is wholly untrue.
7.I had expressed dissent to your statement at 5 above namely “ SCEI had approved the co-owner as committee members in Nov-2104” If you have time to read on the following URL you will find more clarity and clues
https://www.indiancooperative.com/cooperative-coffee-shop/new-state-co-op-e-c-confuses-further/
8.Quoted from your mail “Builder consultant said if there is no objection and President approve it then they can do so by internal agreement.” Let them prove that bye-laws give such power.
9.“For critical decision relevant to 5 year cannot be taken in haste.” I am impressed!!!. It is unfortunate that you have to fight for RIGHT to become MIGHT. Your housing society is very fortunate to have member like you but it much more frustrating thae the Society is far more unlucky to have another lot…
10.Please keep fighting: Truth wins at the last destination of the journey of fight.