Nagpur: The Row House /Duplex House Flat Owners have strongly criticised the blatant violation of byelaws & MCS Act by Mahindra Bloomdale Housing Society and its authoritarian functioning. According to the aggrieved residents, the Mahindra Bloomdale Cooperative Housing Society Ltd. (MBCHSL) was formed in January 2019 with the adoption of the approved byelaws governed under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies (MCS) Act, 1960 and nomination of a Provisional Society (PS) for a period of one year, whose mandate was to establish necessary infrastructure for the Society and to hold election as per the Bylaws so that an Elected Body is put in place to run the Society.
However, owing to Covid pandemic election could be conducted only in October 2021 by Sahakari Sanstha, the Nagpur District authorized government body. The newly elected body started functioning since December 2021. In terms of Clause 67(a)(vi) of the Byelaws the Service Charges are to be levied on Flat Owners on an equal basis irrespective of the size of Flats.
Gold Rate
09 May 2025
This component forms the major share of the total Society charges as laid down in Clause 67(a). Due to genuine oversight in the initial stage the Provisional Society (PS) raised Maintenance Bills on ‘per square foot’ (psf) basis, but later with deliberate intention by the new office-bearers of the PS decided to continue to raise Bills on ‘psf’ basis only, which impacted the Row House (RH)/Duplex House (DH) Flat Owners by way of paying excessive Service Charges.
Since the RH&DH owners were unaware of the said bylaws provision, the Maintenance Bills were dutifully paid in 2019-20 & 2020-21 by most of them. They became aware of this provision in Jan’21 and accordingly promptly submitted representation to the PS, which was still functioning then, for taking corrective steps immediately, but to no avail. The affected RH&DH Flat Owners group represented the matter to the Assistant Registrar (AR) of Nagpur District Sahakari Sanstha, who directed the Society to implement Maharashtra Govt.’s Order of 29.04.2000 and action taken in accordance to that for redressal of these Owners’ grievance.
This order unequivocally directs all Housing Societies to levy Service Charges only on an equal basis and to refund the excess amount, if recovered, or adjust the same in subsequent bills with consent of the aggrieved owners. Instead, the PS opted to submit a proposal for amendment of the said Byelaws provision to ‘psf’ basis to the Assistant Registrar (of Sahakari Sanstha. This was summarily rejected by the AR as the law did not permit it to do so.
Despite the AR’s clear direction then Society (PS) continued to raise bills on ‘psf’ basis. It is pertinent to mention that Mah. Govt. issued MCS (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, wherein Section 154B-1(12) states that where Society Charges are not paid, part or full, if bills are not raised as per the Rule of Law, such amount shall not be considered as ‘dues’. Bills raised, not conforming to the Rule of law shall be considered as invalid & illegal. By this time the newly elected body took over the charge in Dec ’21.
The aggrieved owners promptly submitted a representation to the new body requesting for early redressal of the long pending grievance to levy Service Charges on equal basis from the date of adoption of the Byelaws in Jan ’19. While accepting that Service Charges would be levied on equal basis as per the Rule of Law, Society in its wisdom decided to implement it from an imaginary date of 01.10.2021 by deliberately misinterpreting the AR’s letter of 31.08.2021, which was not concerning this Owners’ group as also there was no mention of 01.10.2021 date in this letter for any kind of implementation.
This AR’s letter was issued in another case filed by an individual and not by this group. The aggrieved Owners once again represented the AR for intervention to which AR promptly issued another direction to the Society in Apr ’22 to implement Mah. Govt.’s Order of 29.04.2000. Instead, the Society submitted its unlawful justification to adhere to the implementation date of 01.10.2021. Surprisingly, the AR maintained silence on blatant violation of the Rule of Law by the Society, instead of taking any action against the Society Office Bearers (OBs) for their misdemeanor.
The aggrieved owners once again approached the AR a few times and requested to clarify the Rule Book provision on the Society’s letter written to AR justifying implementation date as 01.10.2021. On this AR held a Hearing between these Owners and the Society OBs in Sep’22. Based on the hearing proceedings and the available records the AR issued a letter to this owners’ group, candidly admitting and accepting that excess maintenance charges have been paid to the Society, duly advising the group to take recourse to legal provision as per law for refunding of the same, thereby clearly vindicating the group’s standpoint that the implementation date should be from the date of adoption of the Byelaws in Jan’19.
Having not receiving any favourable response from the Society, while the rule of law being amply clear that Service Charges are to be levied on equal basis to be effected from the date of adoption of the Bylaws, the aggrieved owners calculated the same for their respective flats as per the date of possession and adjusted the excess amount, wherever accruing, from the Bills received from the Society.
Unfortunately, the Society is not taking cognizance of this and is continuing to raise bills unlawfully showing the adjusted amount as ‘outstanding dues’ including levying of 15% interest thereto. However, these Owners are continuing to pay the Society Charges minus the ‘outstanding dues’ under protest, while pointing out that the Bills are being raised in blatant violation of the Rule of Law.
Till date Society has not contested any viewpoint put forth by this Owners group either collectively in their various representations or individually done through protest emails sent to the Society Office Bearers while making payment against each invalid & illegal Bills. Since the excess amount has been mostly adjusted by the aggrieved Owners and there is no amount left with Society for refund, there is no scope for taking any recourse to legal action by them. On the contrary, Society has started serving Notice to these Owners, who, in fact, have never defaulted on payment of Society Charges.
Such an act by the Society and continued raising of Maintenance Bills reflecting fictitious ‘outstanding dues’ are causing undue distress and mental harassment to these Owners, some of whom are Senior Citizens, who have chosen this Complex for peaceful living, but, alas, unlawfully & maliciously being destructed by the authoritarian Society and inept functioning of the Office Bearers.
The studied silence on the part of the local authorities, entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the Rule of Law and to provide protection to the public against its perpetrators through efficient justice delivery mechanism, including reluctance on their part to take suitable action against the erring Society OBs is a matter of concern. This needs to be taken note of by the concerned Govt. authorities.
The Society OBs are simply indifferent, insensitive and apathetic towards the fundamental issue of implementing the Byelaws from its adoption in Jan’19 in letter & spirit, which smacks of its authoritarianism. The lack of will and malicious attitude on the part of the OBs to address genuine grievances of the Society Members, while taking recourse to actions not in consonance with the Rule book, is a matter of serious concern.
Such OBs, who are deficient in knowledge of relevant Act, Byelaws, Amendment Ordinance, Rules, etc., and are devoid of any passion to discharge their fair and impartial social service are unfit for the position they are occupying. Concerned authorities should take note of their misdemeanors and disqualify them from any such public post in future, the residents demanded.
