Judgment

Misra, J.-The short question raised in this appeal is, “whether in the allotment of flats to its members by the Cooperative Housing Society (hereinafter referred to as `the Society’) the criteria is seniority irres­pective of default in the payment of dues or whether it is payment-cum-seniority?” The appellant is a registered Housing Cooperative Society, registered in the Office of Registrar, Coopera­tive Societies, Delhi, under the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act, 1972 (here­inafter referred to as “the Act”) and the Delhi Cooperative Societies Rules 1973 (herein­after referred to as “the Rules”). It was constituted for the purpose of allotment of flats to its members. At the relevant time 460 members were in roll. This Society applied for allotment of land to the Delhi Development Authority (hereinafter referred to as “DDA”) for the purpose of construction of flats for its members. This Society was allot­ed only 5 acres of land in Patparganj which was not sufficient for the construction of flats for the afore­said members. However, later on, in view of relaxation to the ceiling limit DDA decided to make additional allotment as per actual require­ment, that is to say, to th