W.P.(C.) No.10971/2019

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

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Date of Decision: 28.01.2022

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W.P.(C) 10971/2019

JASDEEP SINGH NANRA

..... Petitioner

Through:

Mr. Siddhant Nath, Advocate.

versus

REGISTRAR CO-COPERATIVE SOCIETIES

PARLIAMENT STREET & ANR

..... Respondents

Through:

Ms. Shobhana Takiar, Advocate for

respondent No.1/ RCS.

Mr. Sandeep Kumar, Advocate for

respondent No.2.

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIPIN SANGHI

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASMEET SINGH

VIPIN SANGHI, J. (ORAL)

1.

The present case is an example of how the respondent No.2 society,

i.e. Telang Cooperative Group Housing Society Ltd. has miserably defeated

the cooperative movement in Delhi. The Delhi Cooperative Societies Act,

1972 (the 1972 Act) was enacted and brought into force to, inter alia, enable

the people to pool in their resources – to attain their defined and stated

objectives collectively, in keeping with the spirit of cooperation. The

revised statement on the principles of cooperation, adopted by the

International Cooperative Alliance in 1995, defines a Cooperative to mean

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“an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their

jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.”

2.

Insofar as Cooperative Housing Societies are concerned, they were

conceived to foster the principles of cooperation, so that people with limited

resources can pool their savings to fulfil their life-time dream of having their

own roof on their heads, which they could call their home. With that

objective, the law facilitated the formation of housing cooperative societies,

and the State – through its instrumentality, namely, the Delhi Development

Authority (DDA), made allotment of plots to housing cooperative societies

at reasonable rates under the DDA (Nazul Land) Rules, 1981, so that flats

could be constructed and allotted to the members who enrol as members of

the society.

3.

So as to curb the practice of hoarding and speculation, and to ensure

that the benefits of concessional allotment of land by the State are availed of

by the genuinely needy people, the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act, 1972

(particularly Section 20) and the Rules framed thereunder viz Delhi

Cooperative Societies Rules, 1973 (the 1973 Rules), (particularly Rule 25)

laid down several eligibility conditions, and disqualifications for becoming a

member of a housing cooperative society. For example, one of them was

that the prospective member should not own any other residential property

in Delhi.

4.

Raising of cooperative flats has always been a slow process. Quite

often, the said process gets mired in controversies due to disputes within the

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management of the cooperative societies; or with the builder/ contractors, or;

with the members. The raising of construction also gets delayed on account

of some of the members not contributing their due share, and also due to

escalation in costs. This has, invariably, resulted in the process of

construction and eventual allotment of the flats to the members getting

delayed for years, and sometime for decades. Often, despite the

construction of flats being completed, their allotment and handing over to

the members gets delayed due to inter se disputes/ claims between the

members and/ or the cooperative society. In the meantime, life does not stop

and some members pass away; some persons – who got validly enrolled as

members, receive some or the other residential property in Delhi by

inheritance; some may move on to other parts of the country, or even abroad

– as their destinies take them.

5.

The acquisition of other property by inheritance, by the duly enrolled

members, was sought to be used by several cooperative societies as a ground

to cease the membership of such members. The issue arose before the Court

wi