Rephrased letter of P.P.Muralidgaran, from Govandi,Mumbai
He has been the Associate Member for the last 16 years. In the last EGM he has been denied participation on the ground that his name (admittedly) was neither appearing on the share certificate nor in the Flat purchase agreement. As per instructions in the NOTICE of the society he used to submit the authority letter from the owner three days in advance. All that he was told was as per new law now he can not attend general body meeting. New by law is not adopted by the society till this date.
He has several questions in his mind
1 Whether his associate membership was valid ?.
2.Under which new Rule he has ceased to be an Associate Member?
3 Should the MC not have informed the members about the change in law.
4 What is the procedure to become an associate member as per the new rule?
5 Without adopting the new by law can they object his associate membership?
I C Naik
I wish P.P.Muralidgaran (PPM for short ) and his housing society’s Secretary browse through the free web-site www.indiancooperative.com. If they do, in a few days’ time quality of their queries will improve a lot.
At the outset, can the Secretary of his housing society explain as to how PPM was admitted to Associate Membership 16 years ago, although u/s 2(19)(b) the MCS Act 1960 has specified eligibility criterion in these words: “associate member” means a member who holds jointly a share of a society with others, but whose name does not stand first in the share certificate;
The fact is PPM was attending general body meetings as a proxy of the owner on the strength of the Authority letter which neither PPM nor Secretary was aware. They are also not aware that Proxy is forbidden in general body meetings. Member has to be personally present. So his votes in every previous general body meetings attended by him was invalid.
There is no change in law on this subject except that the 2014 Model Bye-Laws (not adopted in PPM’s housing society) has fixed a different eligibility criterion against that u/s 2(19)(b). It’s Bye-Law 3(xxiv)(b) reads: “Associate Member” means a Member who holds the right, title and interest in the property individually or jointly with others, but whose name does not stand first in the share certificate”. PPM is not affected by this,
Now the only question is can PPM become Associate Member? It can be safely assumed PPM’s Society’s registered bye-laws are based on Model 1984. Bye-Law No 21 provides: “An individual, a firm, a company or a body corporate, registered under any law for the time being in force, who/which is eligible to be an associate member and who/which has made an application in the prescribed form for such membership, along with the entrance fee of Rs. 10, may be admitted as such member by the Committee.”
Form prescribed at Appendix 7 is for making the application for Associate Membership by an Individual, who desires to hold shares jointly with another person, who is already admitted to membership of the society. It costs PPM an Admission fee of Rs 10 and getting the form signed by the flat owner he should submit to the Secretary. Maximum of three months are permitted to the society to decide on PPM’s application, after which if nothing is heard from the society PPM becomes an Associate member. He has to remind the Secretary to return the Share Certificate mentioning your name after the name of the flat owner, Make sure this is done otherwise you will be back to square one.