Co-operative housing society (Mumbai): The High Court of Bombay (Amit Borkar, J.) quashed the order of the Assistant Registrar disqualifying the entire elected managing committee of Al-Mas Co-operative Housing Society for five years under Section 154B-23(3) of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 for alleged non-compliance with a direction to furnish documents to a member, and also quashed the consequential order under Section 77A appointing an Administrator. Held: (i) a Registrar's direction under Section 154B-8 must state the exact documents to be furnished, the time for compliance, and the copying/inspection charges payable; without these elements the direction lacks certainty and enforceability — the direction of 28 October 2024 specified none of them; (ii) the society had kept all eight demanded documents ready (communication of 18 November 2024) and repeatedly called the member to collect them on payment of fees (3 February 2025); the member's conscious and deliberate refusal of 5 February 2025 could not be converted into a ground to penalise the committee, for the law does not permit a party to take advantage of its own refusal; the disqualification order, which ignored this material, failed the test of reasoned decision-making and was ex facie arbitrary; (iii) the Revisional Authority erred in recording that the society had admitted failure to provide documents — a finding plainly contrary to the record, reflecting non-application of mind; (iv) dispensation of the statutory proclamation preceding supersession under Section 77A is extraordinary, permissible only on demonstrated urgency with recorded reasons (applying Harish Arora v. Deputy Registrar of Cooperative Societies, WP (C) No. 3433 of 2025); the Administrator's appointment of 7 February 2025, issued without proclamation and without special reasons, stood vitiated on that ground alone. Registrars were directed to observe this discipline in all future directions under Section 154B-8. Disqualification of an elected committee being a drastic step striking at democratic functioning, the power must be exercised with restraint and only on willful and persistent defiance established after reasonable opportunity. Writ petitions allowed; no costs.
