Mumbai Housing Society survey: “Dead members cannot be counted as a re -development,” says an expert | File Ice (representative image)
Our society is over 80 years old and needs urgent renovation. We have 60 members, six of which ended last year. Their legal heirs have so far not been in contact with the transfer of housing and the appointment is not registered in records. In these circumstances, what is the resolution of the Special Group Meeting (SGM) for the 78A procedure? Are dead members counted into total membership? Thus, how many members would constitute a 51%majority to approve the reform proposal and to select the developer to be selected afterwards? – Prakash Vengurlekar, Parel
Pursuant to Article 25 of the Maharashtra Cooperatives, a person ceases to be a member of society after the resignation, shares or interest, death, depreciation or expulsion. The Committee should therefore remove the names of the people who have ceased to be members from the membership register. As six 60 members have died and their legal heirs have not approached the member association, the total strength of the members is reduced from 60 to 54. Membership does not automatically pass to the legal heirs; They must apply, complete the required formalities and pay the prescribed fee.
In the absence of naming, legal heirs need a consecutive certificate, a legitimate inheritance certificate or a family arrangement document and must comply with Sections 154B-13 before the apartments can be transferred to their name. Until then, they will not obtain membership rights. The coorum required for SGM, which is selected for re-development and developers, is two-thirds of 54, ie 36.
Six dead members are not counted for determining the total membership, the coorum or the 51%majority. In your case, at least 51% of the members in SGM, who come to 27, is required. Recently, in a petition in the Supreme Court of Bombay, the court considered that access to membership is essential that the legal heir is considered a member of a society.
The approved position was that none of the legal heirs of dead members had been applied or approved. The court also stated that omission of the Administrative Committee Failure to update the members cannot change the fact that membership ends in death. The death of a member does not mean the automatic continuation of membership or the automatic access of legal heirs.
The mandate of the cogorum is based on the percentage of members, not on the percentage of housing or units, and therefore dead members must be excluded. The information of society under section 38 (2) of the MCS Act is not convincing when the fact of death is accepted. Thus, according to the death of these members, they cease to remain members of society.
The questions are answered by Sharmila Ranade, related to Mumbai Grahak Panchayat. Questions briefly can be sent to [email protected]
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