Separate Society Registration Invalid as Building Was One Integrated Structure: Bombay HC

Sarita Cooperative Housing Society Ltd. Vs Minister for Cooperation & Textile Department & Ors. (Bombay High Court)

Registration of New Cooperative Society Quashed Due to Absence of Statutory Bifurcation;  Authorities Cannot Create Separate Society for Shops Within Existing Registered Building: Bombay HC;  Registration Under Section 9 Cannot Be Used to Fragment an Existing Cooperative Society;  Separate Cooperative Society for Shops Not Permissible Without Lawful Division of Existing Society

The case before the Bombay High Court concerned the legality of the registration of a separate cooperative society consisting of shop owners who were formerly members of an existing housing society. The petitioner society challenged the orders passed by authorities under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960, particularly the order of the Registrar under Section 9 registering a new society for ten commercial shops situated within the same building governed by the petitioner society.

The petitioner society had been registered on 30 January 1986. The building known as “G–Sarita” consists of a ground floor and six upper floors. The ground floor contains ten commercial shops and eight residential flats, while the upper floors contain residential flats. In total, the building comprises 56 residential flats and ten shops. According to the petitioner, the entire building forms a single integrated and structurally interlinked construction, sharing common walls and forming part of a unified structural framework.