Mumbai: New housing society rules to come into effect soon

The rules should have been announced within a year of being finalised, say experts

The much-awaited Maharashtra Co-operative Housing Societies (MCHS) Rules will likely see the light of day by the end of March this year. After much brainstorming, senior bureaucrats, senior officials of the cooperative department and members of state housing bodies have chalked out the rules, which are nearly ready for release. With the Maharashtra Co-operative Housing Societies Act (Amended) having been introduced on March 9, 2019, its rules for implementation should have been introduced within six months to a year. According to experts, this has adversely affected the functioning of housing cooperatives.

New chapter introduced

Advocate Shreeprasad Parab, expert director, Maharashtra State Housing Federation Ltd., who was among those present at a meeting in Mantralaya, said, "Maharashtra has over 1,25,000 cooperative housing societies, which is nearly 50 per cent of the societies in the state. Hence, a chapter (Chapter XIII-B) was introduced in 2019 for managing housing societies in the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960. The new chapter has many benefits, but its provisions cannot be implemented without requisite rules. The Maharashtra State Co-operative Housing Societies Federation had been following up with the state government to publish the MCHS Rules."

Senior bureaucrats and office bearers of cooperative department discuss the rules during a meeting in Mantralaya recently

Proactive rules

Advocate Parab added, "The proposed MCHS Rules will benefit housing societies to fulfill their objective of providing amenities and services and redevelopment/self-redevelopment. The housing societies could benefit in the following ways - initially, there were no provisions for raising funds for redevelopment and self-redevelopment. With the addition of the housing chaper, the reconstruction of society's property is the object of the housing society. Hence, the provisions for raising such funds were discussed while framing the rules. Similarly, the provisions to fill casual vacancy in the committee
and to provide education and training along with the process will be incorporated in the rules.

Also Read: Mumbai: Andheri's housing society office-bearers face action for charging extra

Tech-based governance

Accoridng to Parab, India aims to be in the global top 50 for ease of doing business. Under this, one of the objectives to be fulfilled by the states is technology-based governance. Accordingly, the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has formulated an action plan for state reforms for Ease of Doing Business. The cooperative housing societies sector needs reforms that would meet the standard of Ease of Doing Business to implement the technology-based governance. This shall be done through online portals for - Dispute Redressal Mechanism right from complaint filing to uploading the orders after an online hearing and single-window system for self redevelopment of housing societies, etc. "The implementation of the Dispute Redressal System through online portals was also discussed," Parab said.

Experts Speak

CA Ramesh Prabhu, founder chairman, MahaSEWA , said, "It is high time that the Maharashtra government publishes the MCHS Rules. The amended act gives considerable relief to housing societies. This includes the introduction of associate member without rights in the flat/property, introduction of joint member holding the flats in a society to hold the property jointly, granting of provisional membership to the nominees till the proper legal heirs are brought on record after the demise of the member, transfer of shares without the mandatory one year waiting period, formation of housing societies with five members instead of earlier mandatory requirement of 10 members, etc."

Prabhu added, "The new act has brought clear provisions on Right to Information. Failing to adhere to them can result in penalty on society office bearers by the Deputy Registrar. Also, enabling redevelopment and self-redevelopment, casting the responsibility on members to abide by resolutions passed by the general body, and timeframe for vacating premises for redevelopment are welcome.
However, the amended Act is meaningless without the MCHS rules."

Advocate Vinod Sampat, an expert in cooperative housing society issues, said, "It is common knowledge that the bureaucrats are not doing their duty properly. The officers should do the proper homework whenever an amendment is proposed in the Act. We have seen instances where an Act is amended, but the rules are not framed for long. When the Act is being amended, why should one wait for rules for more than a few months?

"This particular procedure has to be followed by all government departments, but the difficulty with bureaucrats is limited accountability. One should simplify the laws of the land, specifically when drafting the Act. At that point of time, the skeleton of the rules should be prepared and only then should the Act be published," Sampat concluded.

2019
Year the Act was amended