Mrs. Jayanthy Krishnamurthy and Another vs The Registrar, Coop. Societies and Another

Manmohan Sarin, J.—Rule.

With the consent of the parties, the writ petition is taken up for hearing.

Petitioner is aggrieved with the action of the Managing Committee of respondent No. 2 in charging hefty fee of Rs. 1,20,000/- in contravention of directions dated 14.12.1999, 10.10.2001 and 09.10.2002 issued by the Registrar Cooperative Societies under Rule 77 of the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act, 1973. Petitioner by this petition claims refund of the said entry fee of Rs. 1,20,000/- taken under the "Common Goods Fund" from respondent No. 2 with interest @ 18% per annum. Learned Counsel for the petitioner Ms. Mala Goel places reliance on the judgment of this Court in Kusum Lata Gupta and Ors. v. Registrar Cooperative Societies reported in 2007 II AD (Delhi) 479 by which a number of writ petitions were disposed of and the funding was returned by holding that it was not permissible for the societies to take payment of hefty amounts from the purchasers in the guise of entry fee, transfer fee, common goods fund or similar nomenclatures. The court in those batch of writ petitions allowed the societies to charge Rs. 10,000/- each to cover the transfer and processing cost etc. Learned Counsel for the petitioner further submits that the petitioner would also have no objection if a similar sum of Rs. 10,000/- is charged from him and not Rs. 1,20,000/-.

Mr. S.C. Jain, Advocate appearing for respondent No. 2 society firstly sought to question the locus of the petitioner stating that petitioner was not the purchaser of the flat and the land from the original allottee. Petitioners have placed on record the conveyance deed (Page 53). The next submission made by learned Counsel is that the conveyance deed did not refer to the flat. That submission is also contrary to facts as the conveyance deed clearly mentions Flat No. 103, Block No. 13, Cooperative Group Housing Society Limited situated at Bhagyavan Apartments, 17, Mayur Vihar Phase-I. Moreover, Mrs. Jayanthy Krishnamurthy w/o Mr. R. Krishnamurthy has signed as purchaser on the said conveyance deed. Learned Counsel for respondent No. 2 then sought to rely on an earlier judgment titled Imtiaz Ali Vs. Nasim Ahmed, which is to the effect that a person cannot become owner on the basis of agreement to sell and power of attorney but sale deed is required. The same has no application in the present case where there is registered conveyance deed and the matter is no longer rest integra.

The writ petition is allowed. We, accordingly, issue a writ of mandamus directing the respondent No. 2 Society to refund a sum of Rs. 1,10,000/- within a month failing which interest @ 9% shall be paid.