Obligations to pay society dues are recurring duties that do not extinguish over time, allowing recovery at any point under Section 154B-29 of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act.

JUDGMENT :

AMIT BORKAR, J.

1. As the questions of law and fact arising in all these writ petitions are identical, it is appropriate to decide all the writ petitions together by a common Judgment and Order.

2. The facts necessary for deciding this group of writ petitions are taken from Writ Petition No. 8045 of 2025. The petitioners state that on 26 September 1996, they entered into an unregistered development agreement with one P and M Associates. Under the said agreement, the agreed consideration was four flats on the fourth floor, which was later changed to the fifth floor. After the construction was completed, respondent No. 1 society came to be registered on 18 May 2005. In terms of the development agreement, the petitioners were put in possession of four flats on the fifth floor. It is the case of the petitioners that no registered agreement was ever executed in their favour. It is further their case that after they were put in possession, the society neither issued maintenance bills nor raised any demand for maintenance charges from them.

3. On 29 March 2023, the society issued a demand notice calling upon the petitioners to pay arrears of maintenance from the year 2005. As the said amount was not paid, the society, on 27 September 2024, filed four applications under Section 154B-29 of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 for recovery of alleged maintenance dues along with service charges.

4. The petitioners filed their reply on 29 November 2023. They raised a specific objection of limitation and contended that, in view of the provisions of the LIMITATION ACT read with Section 92 (2) of the MCS Act, the recovery applications were clearly barred by limitation. They also contended that they are not members of the society and, therefore, no recovery proceedings under Section 154B-29 could be initiated against them. It was further contended that prior to the amendment of the year 2019, by which a separate chapter for housing societies was introduced, the earlier provisions of Section 101 of the MCS Act could not have been invoked against the petitioners. It was also pointed out that there was no resolution of the society authorising initiation of recovery proceedings.

5. The Deputy Registrar, by order dated 15 March 2024, rejected all the defences raised by the petitioners and issued four recovery certificates against them.

6. Aggrieved by the order passed under Section 154B-29 of the MCS Act, the petitioners preferred revision applications and, as required, deposited 50 percent of the alleged dues before the revisional authority. The revisional authority, by the impugned order dated 28 April 2025, dismissed the revision applications. Consequently, the petitioners have approached this Court by filing the present writ petitions.

7. Mr. Gole, Learned Advocate appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the applications filed by the society in the year 2023 seek recovery of arrears from the year 2005 without furnishing any proper calculation or breakup indicating the relevant period. He submitted that such applications are clearly barred by the law of limitation. He contended that the Registrar exercising powers under Section 154B-29 of the MCS Act acts as a Court within the meaning of Section 156(2) of the said Act. Therefore, by virtue of Article 137 of the LIMITATION ACT , 1963, a recovery application can be entertained only within three years from the date of default. He further submitted that even if it is assumed that the society had issued bills and that dues