Request to remove Negative Provisions of MAHARASHTRA Co-operative Societies Act.

January 30, 2015

The Hon.  Minister for Co-operation and Textiles,

Govt. of Maharashtra,
Madame Cama Road, 
Mantralaya,

Mumbai.

Sub: Request to remove Negative Provisions of

MAHARASHTRA Co-operative Societies Act.

Respected Sir,

The  amended  Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, has some negative features that defeat the purpose of the 97th Constitutional Amendment passed in January 2012, specifically in respect of co-operative housing societies.

The 97th Amendment made it a Directive Principle of State Policy to ensure “voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of Cooperative Societies”.

Unfortunately, the MCS Act, has untoward provisions that will:

1)    Make artificial divisions among members, and spread disharmony
2)    Poison the housing society atmosphere with caste-based quarrels & potential abuse of Atrocities Act

Sir, the root cause is that many provisions have been introduced with the objective of reforming profit-making co-operative enterprises such as agricultural, sugar, dairy, banking & credit, and labourers co-operatives, which may have business dealings in hundreds of crores of rupees.

But when these provisions are made applicable to co-operative housing societies, which are non-profit-making entities, they have untoward effects. Housing societies are formed for the limited purpose of maintenance of common amenities of the residents, and are usually joined voluntarily by flat-purchasers, as there is no alternative. They cannot be clubbed with other co-operative enterprises that are formed for transacting business and making profits, and where each member has a choice whether to join or continue business independently.

We request you to - in the immediate term, remedy this by introducing some provisos that say, “Provided that this section/sub-section shall not be applicable to co-operative housing societies.”

In the long term, however, a lasting remedy lies in framing a separate legislation for co-operative housing societies.

Accordingly, we, the residents of co-operative societies in Mumbai, Thane and MMR region, urge you to make the below-mentioned modifications in the MCS Act :

CHANGE RECOMMENDED:

1. Section 73-B says:
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or in the rules made there under or any bye-laws of any society, on the committee of such society or class of societies as the State Government may, by general or special order, direct, three seats shall be reserved.– 
(a) one for the members belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes; 
(a-1) one for the members belonging to the Other Backward Classes; 
(a-2) one for the members belonging to the De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes or Special Backward Classes; 
(3) Any individual member of the society, or any elected, member of the committee of a member-society, or any member of the committee of a member-society, whether elected, co-opted or appointed under this section, belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, shall be eligible to contest the election to a reserved seat and every person who is entitled to vote at the election to the committee shall be entitled to vote at the election to any such reserved seats.
(4) Where no person is elected to any of the three reserved seats, then such seat or seats shall be filled in by nomination from amongst the persons entitled to contest the election to the reserved seats under sub-section (3)”

WORDS TO BE CHANGED: Kindly insert a proviso as follows, “Provided that nothing contained in this section is applicable to housing societies.”

Why this change is necessary: Without questioning the merits of caste-based reservations in general, we wish to point out that such reservations in co-operative housing societies will only highlight caste distinctions between neighbours.

Currently, most co-operative housing societies are functioning without making visible distinctions between people belonging to various castes and communities.

However, in order to comply with these provisions of section 73-B, people will now have to become aware of which neighbor belongs to which caste, community or tribe. 

Such heightened awareness of castes etc. is likely to cause groupism along caste-based lines, and quarrels citing caste-based characteristics.

Needless to say, divisions and rifts between people already exist in some societies; and even a stray unfavourable reference to members of the scheduled castes and tribes, can result in being booked under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Now, managing committees of societies will be forced to ask for the caste-certificate of such members for the purpose of elections, and accordingly, references to caste may be made in writing, and orally also.

Quarrels and stray remarks may also cause frequent use (and abuse) of the Atrocities Act. It is highly probable that this may cause a tendency for people to segregate themselves, i.e. go to live in societies where they are among their own caste or tribe.     

Sir, on behalf of all co-operative housing societies, we earnestly plead with you make the changes suggested above.

Yours Sincerely,

Dayanand Nene (88795 28575)                                                 

Members: Jitendra Satpute, Kiran Joshi, Dilip Kankale, Sandhya Malhotra, Adv Shrirang Mulye.