The Delhi High Court has rapped Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) for the over five year delay in holding a draw of lots for flats here as the list of members of a housing society was not forwarded to the DDA even after verification of documents.
“We are pained to note that other than calling upon us to repeatedly pass the same kind of orders and causing wastage of judicial time, the RCS appears to be doing nothing. “Once the principles are set out by this court and accepted, there is no reason why every society must keep on approaching this court for holding a draw of lots and for seeking allotment.
The legal position having been settled, the RCS should have volunteered to forward the names to DDA,” a division bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.
The court asked RCS to forward names of members to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for holding a draw within 10 days, besides imposing a fine of Rs 10,000. The RCS was also asked to pay the fine to Jai Bhawani Cooperative Group Housing Society Ltd (Dwarka) in 15 days.
The group housing society, in its petition, alleged that RCS has been sitting over the list of members even after the verification process. It alleged RCS was not forwarding the list to DDA for holding a draw of lots, causing harassment to the members.
“We are thus of the view that RCS must be penalised for such conduct and we have put to learned counsel for RCS to notice that the costs which we seek to impose now would continue to escalate for every such repeated stand taken by the RCS contrary to our directions, which is really contumacious in character and would be from the personal account of RCS,” the court said.
The RCS said it was not forwarding the list to DDA due to the fact that the CBI did not file the charge sheet in a criminal case pertaining to the housing society. Terming the situation as “anarchic”, the court cited its various judgements in similar cases saying RCS should have allowed the draw of lots.
“We have repeatedly emphasised to RCS through various court orders about the almost anarchic situation which is sought to be created by conduct of RCS. This court has been faced with repeated examples of self-draws being held by members, frustrated with the approach of RCS,” it said.
The Society was offered land by DDA in 1998 at Sector 22, Dwarka. On completion of 90 per cent construction, it sent a letter to RCS proposing allotment of flats to 69 members. Despite this, the names were not forwarded to DDA and the members are hanging fire for more than 5 years since December, 2005, the court said.