Pune:The deputy registrar of cooperative society, Pune city, has dissolved an 18-member managing committee of a housing society in Lohegaon for denying one of its members access to documents like audit reports, statement of accounts and income-expenditure details, among others, despite reminders and directives from the cooperative officials.The housing cooperative comprises 25 residential towers with 657 members and close to 1,500 residents. Deputy registrar NV Aghav in a couple of orders on Feb 27 and March 4 declared the 18 members of the society’s managing committee as ineligible to be part of it and to get reappointed, renominated or re-accepted for the next five years from Feb 27.A three-member authorised committee to be named from within the existing members of the society would look after its day-to-day affairs for the next six months or till a new managing committee was elected, the March 4 order stated.Reshma Vaykar, the society’s former secretary, toldTOI, “We believe the disqualification is illegal and we will approach the authority concerned in an appeal against the order.”Kasturi Mukherjee, a member of the society who had filed a complaint with the cooperatives department in 2023, toldTOIon Thursday, “We were seeking information from the management committee because we are paying an annual maintenance of nearly Rs50,000 and not getting the services promised to us. This was the reason we sought the record. They were given a chance of over two years to provide the documents, but they didn’t comply with the order.“Mukherjee stated in her complaint that she had asked for the society’s audited financial reports, statements of accounts and income-expenditure details, but was denied the same. She stated that the denial was despite reminders and directives from the cooperative department officials.On its part, the society managing committee had claimed that they had provided most of the documents sought by Mukherjee and assured to provide the remaining documents within a month. However, the same were not provided and the cooperative official, after going through the written statements of either side, held that the applicant was not provided with complete information. As such, the committee members were in default of their duties as laid under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act of 1960.In his final order, Aghav also mentioned a couple of rulings by the Bombay high court to the effect that cooperative housing society members had a legal right to inspect records (financials, minutes, audits) under Section 154B-8 (formerly Section 32) of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act. “Refusing access to these documents justifies the disqualification of the managing committee,” the high court rulings said.
