MUMBAI: Following the letters from local MP Manoj Kotak and Mulund MLA Mihir Kotecha, the deputy registrar of T ward M B Mhaske on Tuesday issued a circular warning committee members of all housing societies to bear the responsibility of legal consequences if they discriminated while giving membership basis caste, religion, language, sex etc.
Last week Trupti Devrukhkar had complained of facing discrimination in a society where she had gone looking for office space simply because she’s a Maharashtrian. According to the deputy registrar’s office Indian constitution as well as the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act 1960 any discrimination or imposing impractical restrictions or conditions was illegal. Experts said registrar has all powers to award membership to any such victim by following the legal provisions.
Vinod Sampat, president of cooperative societies residents and users welfare association said being a democratic country and as per its constitution one has to follow the basic principle of equality before law or equal protection under law. “As applicable in kashmir, himachal pradesh and a few other territories, an undisputed right to purchase and use the property for their personal use subject to reasonable restriction– like no commercial activity in residential area — has been granted. Just because a person is of different caste,creed, sex, the society cannot discriminate nor can put impractical restrictions on the buyers,” he said.
Vikramaditya Dhamdhere, General Secretary of the Federation of Grantees of Government Lands, an association of housing societies on collector lands, said a few days ago chairman of a Mulund society refused a house to a Maharashtrian woman. “After some time, MNS activists reached the scene of the incident and made the office-bearers of the society to apologize. This is very unfortunate in a society where maharashtrians never discriminate with members on such grounds. In many housing societies wherein Gujarati and Marwari communities are in majority, they make their own rules. Nowhere in the Bye Laws/MCS Act there is any mention about such a provision. The government should take serious cognizance of this issue,” he said.
According to Sampat there are exceptions like Parsi colony dadar where parsis can purchase because it is the land owned by the parsi trust. “Otherwise normally if any flat is to be bought anywhere there is a blanket permission and protection to the buyer. Any act to prohibit that is against the law. A civil and criminal action be initiated against the managing committee indulging in such a discrimination and dictatorship,” he added.
DHamdhere said there are about more than 2 Lakhs Housing Societies in Mumbai. “The Co-operative Department of Maharashtra must frame the stringent rules in the Bye Laws and MCS Act prohibiting managing Committees of Housing Societies from framing their own rules as per their convenience. This is despite the fact that our Prime Minister has made “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (The world is one family) the central thought of government policies,” he added.
Last week Trupti Devrukhkar had complained of facing discrimination in a society where she had gone looking for office space simply because she’s a Maharashtrian. According to the deputy registrar’s office Indian constitution as well as the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act 1960 any discrimination or imposing impractical restrictions or conditions was illegal. Experts said registrar has all powers to award membership to any such victim by following the legal provisions.
Vinod Sampat, president of cooperative societies residents and users welfare association said being a democratic country and as per its constitution one has to follow the basic principle of equality before law or equal protection under law. “As applicable in kashmir, himachal pradesh and a few other territories, an undisputed right to purchase and use the property for their personal use subject to reasonable restriction– like no commercial activity in residential area — has been granted. Just because a person is of different caste,creed, sex, the society cannot discriminate nor can put impractical restrictions on the buyers,” he said.
Vikramaditya Dhamdhere, General Secretary of the Federation of Grantees of Government Lands, an association of housing societies on collector lands, said a few days ago chairman of a Mulund society refused a house to a Maharashtrian woman. “After some time, MNS activists reached the scene of the incident and made the office-bearers of the society to apologize. This is very unfortunate in a society where maharashtrians never discriminate with members on such grounds. In many housing societies wherein Gujarati and Marwari communities are in majority, they make their own rules. Nowhere in the Bye Laws/MCS Act there is any mention about such a provision. The government should take serious cognizance of this issue,” he said.
According to Sampat there are exceptions like Parsi colony dadar where parsis can purchase because it is the land owned by the parsi trust. “Otherwise normally if any flat is to be bought anywhere there is a blanket permission and protection to the buyer. Any act to prohibit that is against the law. A civil and criminal action be initiated against the managing committee indulging in such a discrimination and dictatorship,” he added.
DHamdhere said there are about more than 2 Lakhs Housing Societies in Mumbai. “The Co-operative Department of Maharashtra must frame the stringent rules in the Bye Laws and MCS Act prohibiting managing Committees of Housing Societies from framing their own rules as per their convenience. This is despite the fact that our Prime Minister has made “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (The world is one family) the central thought of government policies,” he added.
