The establishment of a Co-operative Society for maintaining residential apartments is invalid if the association of owners, formed under the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, complies with statutory requirements and holds majority support.

CAV ORDER

The petitioner has approached this Court seeking issuance of writ in the nature of certiorari to quash the order dated 07.02.2024 passed by respondent No.1, produced as per Annexure-A and to quash/cancel the registration granted by respondent No.2 to respondent No.3 - Society dated 06.09.2023, produced as per Annexure-B.

2. Facts of the case in brief are that, the petitioner - M/s Sobha Limited, a Company registered under the COMPANIES ACT, 1956 , has filed this writ petition seeking the above reliefs. It is contended that the petitioner, a Real Estate Developer, undertook to develop a housing project by name 'Sobha HRC Pristine' consisting of row houses and multi-storied residential apartment buildings, in 4 phases situated at Jakkur village, Yelahanka Hobli, Bangalore North Taluk, with 395 units i.e. 381 apartments and 14 row houses, with club house and other common amenities. This 4 phase project was registered with the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority, under the provisions of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as 'RERA'). The petitioner completed construction of the apartment and villas and obtained the Occupancy Certificate dated 26.05.2023 from Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

3. It is stated by the petitioner that, after obtaining the Occupancy Certificate on 26.05.2023 under the provisions of RERA, it commenced the execution and registration of sale deeds in respect of the apartments and villas in favour of various allottees. The sale deeds in respect of 264 units out of 395 have been executed and registered in favour of the purchasers.

4. It is stated that the local law that is applicable to the project is Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act 1972, (hereinafter referred to as ' KAOA ') and Karnataka Apartment Ownership Rules, 1974 (hereinafter referred to as KAOR'). A Deed of Declaration dated 12.06.2023 was submitted along with the bye-laws of Sobha HRC Pristine Owners Association (for short 'the Association') as per Form-A under the provisions of and KAOR and registered as Document No.3588/2023- 24. The bye-laws are enclosed as per Annexure-C and Deed of Declaration is as per Annexure-D. The Deed of Declaration along with the bye-laws was duly filed with the Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies vide letter dated 21.06.2023, as required under Section 13 of , which has been duly acknowledged. Thus the maintenance, administration and management of the common areas, amenities, equipments and facilities in the project was undertaken by forming an association of owners by executing and registering the Deed of Declaration under the name of the Association and executed Form-B as provided in , submitting their unit to the provisions of the said Act including few members of respondent No.3 - Society.

5. It is stated that respondent No.3 led by one Mr. T K Parasuraman, claiming to be the Chief Promoter approached respondent No.2 with misleading facts, suppressing the material facts and without adhering to the provisions of KAOA and managed to obtain the Certificate of Registration of respondent No.3 by name Sobha HRC Pristine Apartment Owners Co-operative Society Limited (for short, 'the Society') under the provisions of KARNATAKA CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES ACT, 1959 (for short 'the KCS Act'). Such registration of the Society is illegal and contrary to the objectives of KCS Act, thereby hijacked the objectives of bye-laws of the Association as provided in the Deed of Declaration. Therefore, issuance of Regi