I, along with my wife, own a flat in Kreeshnadeep Co-operative Housing Society Limited, Chikoowadi, Borivali West, Mumbai. As I was a non-resident Indian residing in a Gulf country, I was out of the country most of the time. Due to some unavoidable circumstances, we were unable to attend the general body meetings of the housing society. Now, the society office-bearers have made it compulsory to attend the general body meeting and have penalized some of the members, including us, who failed to attend the general body meeting by charging a fine of Rs.500.00 under the heading of "other charges". I have enquired with some experts who are of the opinion that not attending a general body meeting is not an offence and the housing society has no legal right to penalize members for not attending a general body meeting. Most of the members who have been penalized have paid the fine after a lot of shouting and acrimony with the housing society office-bearers. We have protested just not paying the amount of fine charged as penalty, even though we have paid the legitimate housing society maintenance charges. We have written several letters to the housing society to explain as to how the housing society could penalize members for not attending the general body meeting by contravening the housing society by-laws which do not provide for any such provision.
Kindly let us know whether the housing society has got any bonafide legal status to penalize the members who do not attend the general body meetings of the housing society and whether there is any breach in the individual civil rights as it almost makes them virtually subservient to the whims of the housing society' office-bearers. We also would like to know if the action of the housing society's office-bearers is punishable under any legal provisions under the co-operative society act.
0 comments