Windsor Hills Maintenance Vote Cannot Replace Association Registration: MP HC Orders Authority To Find If Majority Prefers A Cooperative Or Company

Windsor Hills Township was developed by M/s Assotech C.P. Infrastructure Private Limited under a registered Prakoshtha Ghoshna.

Different resident groups formed separate societies, none of which, according to the petitioner, represented all approximately 711 apartment owners.

On 2 September 2022, the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) directed steps to register a society comprising all apartment owners and thereafter to conduct an election; the Additional Collector affirmed that order on 7 October 2022.

The SDO subsequently ordered a voting process to select a society to manage the township, resulting in the impugned order of 3 January 2023 and consequential orders of 6 and 11 January 2023.

The petitioner sought to have those orders set aside or modified, contending that the statutory process for forming and registering an association had not been followed.

Section 18(2) of the Madhya Pradesh Prakoshtha Swamitva Adhiniyam, 2000 requires the competent authority to ascertain whether the majority of apartment owners desires the association to function as a cooperative society or as a limited company, and then to register it in the chosen form under the applicable legislation: the Madhya Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 or the Companies Act.

The court held that a vote favouring an existing society cannot, by itself, substitute for this statutory ascertainment and registration process.

No judicial precedents were relied upon.

The court treated the statutory formation and registration of an association as a prerequisite to resolving which body should manage the township.

Because the township had numerous apartment owners while the competing societies represented different groups, a vote selecting one existing society did not establish the majority’s preference between the statutory forms of association required by Section 18(2).

The court therefore directed the competent authority to ascertain that preference and proceed with registration before addressing the association’s constitution and executive-body election.

It left the rival societies’ claims and the merits of elections already conducted for determination in accordance with law.

The SDO was directed first to ascertain the majority preference as to whether the association should function as a cooperative society or a limited company, then take steps to register it in that form, and thereafter proceed according to law on the association’s constitution and election of its executive body.

The order dated 3 January 2023 was modified to that extent, and the consequential orders dated 6 and 11 January 2023 were quashed.