Mumbai: Bombay high court upheld an order of a divisional joint registrar of Cooperative Societies that barred a Mumbai resident of a suburban housing society from contesting managing committee elections on grounds of having more than two children.
The cooperative societies law was amended in 2019 to disqualify those who have more than two children.
The man said the third child was not his, but only studying at his house. No proof was shown to back such a claim and hence HC said, given the law, no fault could be found in his disqualification, but, on his lawyer Swapnil Bangur’s request, extended a stay on the election to the post of the housing society’s chairperson, by two weeks to enable him to go in appeal.
HC single-judge bench of Justice Avinash Gharote in a Jun 13 judgment noted that the petition filed by a resident of a housing society in Kandivali challenged a May 15, 2023 order of a deputy registrar of cooperative societies that disqualified him as committee member.
Uday Warunjikar counsel for a member who had opposed the petitioner said provision placing a bar on members with more than 2 children from holding a managing committee post exists since 2001 and in Mar 2019 the Act was amended.
HC said the petitioner has had three children since commencement of the Act in 2001, hence held there was no reason to set aside the cooperative registrar’s order of his disqualification. TNN

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