HC rules, Registrar of Socities has no authority to order for issuance of NOC to Members

The High Court of Bombay last week stayed an order passed by a deputy registrar of co-operative societies in the city, directing a co-operative housing society at Dindoshi to issue no-objection certificates to one of its members for improvement & change of user of his premises.

Justice Girish Kulkarni while staying order issued by the deputy registrar, P ward said that “In my prima-facie opinion the Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies ex-facie did not have any jurisdiction & authority to issue such a direction to the petitioner society to issue a NOC as contained in the order".

Acting on a complaint lodged by the member, the deputy registrar had on July 9, 2019, directed Shree Raghunandan co-operative housing society to issue necessary NOCs to the member for joining four tenements & converting user of the premises from residential to commercial.

The housing society then moved High Court, through Lawyer Mohit Jadhav, challenging the order on various grounds.

The order was purportedly passed under Section 79(2)(a) of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies (MCS) Act, 1960, but Justice Kulkarni opined that the deputy registrar had no power to issue such a direction.

In my prima facie opinion, it is clearly a dispute between a member & the society, which would require adjudication before some other forum, said the Judge.

The Judge said section 79(2)(a) deals with compliances to be made by co-operative societies & confers power on the deputy registrar to issue necessary orders to ensure the statutory compliances like filing of returns etc.

Justice Kulkarni said that “It is difficult to conceive that the nature of the complaint as made by respondent no. 3 (member) before the Deputy Registrar invoking Section 79(2)(a) for issuance of inter-alia fire NOC & a NOC for improvements can at all fall within the purview of this provision".

The Judge added that to read such wide powers to issue such directions as contained in the impugned order under Section 79(2)(a) would amount to reading something into the provision which the legislature has not provided for & in fact if so construed would amount to something contrary to the statutory scheme of the MCS Act 1960. 

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