Yogini Bhupendra Parikh Vs District Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies (Bombay High Court)
Summary: The Bombay High Court dealt with a challenge arising from a co-operative housing society’s attempt to recover Rs.15,45,730/- as penal charges for parking a bicycle worth Rs.11,000/- in the staircase. The Petitioners challenged the District Deputy Registrar’s order only to the extent that, despite setting aside the Recovery Certificate dated 4 April 2025, it remanded the proceedings to the Deputy Registrar for fresh adjudication. The Society had sought to levy the penalty retrospectively for about 11 years under bye-law 169(a) on the allegation that the Petitioners had encroached upon common space by parking their bicycle there.
The High Court held that the remand was unwarranted. The District Deputy Registrar had specifically found that the Society had not adopted the new Model Bye-laws, meaning bye-law 169(a), on which the Deputy Registrar’s order was based, was not applicable. No provision in the existing bye-laws authorising such a penalty was placed before the Court. Even assuming that the Society possessed power to levy a penalty for unauthorised encroachment, the Court found the retrospective levy of more than Rs.15 lakh for 11 years over bicycle parking arbitrary. There was nothing on record showing that the Society had objected to the parking between 2011 and 2020; the objection was first raised in August 2021. The Court observed that housing societies must act reasonably and cannot assume the role of “super-regulatory authorities” over their members by raising such demands.
