Housing society member rights: meetings, audits and the records you may inspect

The treasurer read the accounts from a single sheet: income, expenses, a balance carried forward, and one line that drew a few glances, Rs 3.6 lakh paid for repairs. Nobody objected, and nobody had the papers. The meeting adopted the accounts and moved on to parking. Most members leave it there, assuming that asking to see the bills would be rude or pointless. It is neither. Housing society member rights in Maharashtra include a statutory right to inspect the society's records and get copies, and since 2019 that right has sat in a chapter of the co-operative law written for housing societies alone.

The line nobody had papers for#

Suresh and Kavita (illustrative, as our stories always are) live in the Pune retirement flat they bought without a loan, in Suresh's sole name, in a tower of 64 flats that has its own co-operative housing society. In September the society held its first annual general body meeting, the one that also put service charges on the footing described in the maintenance charges guide. The accounts were read in summary, and the Rs 3.6 lakh repair payment was mentioned without the bills, the quotations or the committee's decision behind it. Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.

Kavita, a retired bank officer, wanted to read the papers rather than argue about them. She is also secretary of the buyers' association formed for the unfinished towers in the same MahaRERA registration, but that association is a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, a different body under a different law. Their tower's society is a co-operative under the 1960 Act, and the rights below belong to its members. The society's nomination is in Kavita's favour, but a nomination operates on a member's death, as nomination is not a will explains. While Suresh is alive the member is Suresh, so the request had to be his.

What the law actually says#

Since 2019, co-operative housing societies have had their own chapter in the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960: Chapter XIII-B, from section 154B onwards. A housing society member's rights now sit there, beside the society's bye-laws, which most societies adopted from the 2014 model. A society reaches this stage after the promoter hands over, the first year of which is walked through in from possession to society.

The right to see the records#

Section 154B-8 gives every member the right to inspect the society's records and to get copies of them on payment of the copying charges. The co-operative law's list has long covered the Act, the rules and the bye-laws, the last audited accounts, the list of committee members, the register of members, the minutes of general body and committee meetings, and the parts of the books recording the member's own dealings with the society.

Three readings by the authorities matter in practice. A Deputy Registrar has held that the section does not require a member to state the purpose for which the records are sought. The Bombay High Court has treated supplying them as a mandatory duty of the managing committee, not a discretion. And in a case the High Court decided under section 154B-8(2), the question was whether the committee had supplied the requested documents within 45 days.

What happens to a committee that sits on them#

In that case the Deputy Registrar held the committee members responsible for not complying with section 154B-8(2) and disqualified them under section 154B-23, barring them for five years from being appointed, nominated, elected or co-opted to the committee. The Joint Registrar and the Minister for Co-operation upheld the order, and so did the High Court. Separately, the Free Press Journal reported a Deputy Registrar's order disqualifying eight committee members of a housing society in Andheri East, Mumbai, for five years over records a member had asked for.

The annual meeting and the audit#

The Act requires a housing society to hold its annual general body meeting within six months of the close of the financial year, so by 30 September for a year ending on 31 March, and to have its accounts audited within four months of that close. Government can move both limits by order. The Maharashtra Co-operative Societies (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 stretched them to nine and twelve months for the 2019-20 accounts, and for 2025 housing societies were given until 31 October to hold the meeting.

The auditor is appointed by the general body, from the panel of auditors the state government approves, and reports as section 81 of the Act provides. A member therefore gets an audit by an auditor the members chose, a yearly meeting of all members, and a right to the audited accounts afterwards.

Elections#

A 2019 amendment added a proviso to section 73CB(11) of the Act under which a society with up to 250 members conducts its own committee election, in the manner the election rules prescribe; larger societies' elections are conducted by the State Co-operative Election Authority. A 64-flat society like Suresh and Kavita's runs its own.

What changed in 2025 and 2026#

Three developments, only one of them in force:

• The Maharashtra Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Rules, 2026, in force from 30 June 2026, inserted a chapter for housing societies into the 1961 rules (Chapter XI-B, rules 106C-1 to 106C-14), covering charges, nomination and succession among other things. Rules cannot take away a right the Act itself gives, so section 154B-8 stands.
• Revised model bye-laws were published in draft, with objections accepted until 27 August 2026. Until a society adopts new bye-laws, its existing ones govern.
• The Maharashtra Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2025, published on 12 December 2025, proposed letting members inspect all the society's general documents, records and audio-visual material free of charge during office hours, with personal and confidential information still excluded. We could not confirm that it has been enacted, so check before relying on it.

Where RTI fits#

Many members reach first for the Right to Information Act. In Thalappalam Service Co-operative Bank v State of Kerala (7 October 2013), the Supreme Court held that a co-operative society is not a public authority under the RTI Act unless it is owned, controlled or substantially financed by the government, which a private housing society is not. The registrar's office is a public authority, and the Delhi High Court, applying that judgment, held that information the registrar can access under the co-operative law may be sought from the registrar under RTI. For a member, section 154B-8 is still the direct route.

These rights belong to members of a co-operative; a building under the Apartment Ownership Act is run differently, as society or condominium explains.

The remedy paths compared#

An analogy: the joint account and its passbook#

Picture a joint account into which 64 families pay every month. Each family may see the passbook, not because anyone is suspected but because it is their money. The yearly meeting is the day everyone reads it together, the audit is an outside check of the entries, and the committee is the account holder who signs the cheques. Asking to see the bill behind a large withdrawal is not an accusation against the signer. It is how a joint account works, and the law makes it a right because 64 families cannot all hold the chequebook.

What the numbers say#

Most of them are small. In January 2020, while the rules for small societies' own elections were still being framed, the elections of 83,000 co-operative housing societies with up to 250 members were postponed to 29 February 2020, as the Free Press Journal reported that month.

How long a refusal can run is shown by the case the Bombay High Court decided under section 154B-8(2):

The documents arrived in the end. The disqualification stood anyway, because the duty is to supply on time, not eventually.

What to do this week#

1. Write, do not ask in the corridor. Name each record, cite section 154B-8, offer the copying charges and keep an acknowledged copy.
2. Separate a right from a request. The minutes and the audited accounts are on the statutory list. Bills and quotations are worth asking to see, and a committee may show them by choice.
3. Check the calendar. Was the meeting held by 30 September, were the accounts audited within four months, and did the general body appoint the auditor?
4. Send one reminder citing the section when no reply comes.
5. Then go to the Deputy Registrar for your area with the request, the acknowledgement and the reminder.
6. Take a common problem to the general body. If accounts are always read in summary, a resolution asking for a schedule of large payments fixes it for everyone.

What the MahaRERA filing can and cannot add#

A society's minutes and accounts are not filed with MahaRERA, so no project page or report reads them. What the filing holds is the building's own record. For any covered project, the free page on ReraGenie shows the permission chain, including whether the occupancy certificate slot holds a document and its upload date, and every filed document. The Rs 499 buyer report sets out land and title as five questions, among them who owns the land as filed and whether it is mortgaged, which is where a society's deemed conveyance starts; and it lists complaints and cases against the project in plain words, with case numbers.

For Suresh and Kavita the worry that never quite goes away is the unfinished part of their registration. The free project page on ReraGenie lists every filed document, complaint and extension for it, and a project watch at Rs 299 emails when that one filing changes. Find your project here.

What Suresh and Kavita did#

Kavita drafted and Suresh signed a one-page letter to the secretary asking for the minutes of the committee meeting that approved the repair and the audited accounts, and, as a request rather than a right, a look at the quotations and bills behind the Rs 3.6 lakh. He offered the copying charges and kept a stamped copy. Three weeks passed without a reply, which in a committee of volunteers usually means a busy month, so he sent a short reminder citing section 154B-8. Ten days later the secretary handed over the copies and invited them to the office to see the bills.

The papers answered the question. The payment was for replacing two water pumps and relining the overhead tank, approved at a committee meeting on three quotations and covered by the audit. Nobody had done anything wrong; the accounts had simply been read faster than they were explained. The committee agreed to give future general body meetings a schedule of every payment above a set amount, and Kavita filed the letter, the reminder and the copies beside the share certificate in the succession file she keeps, the one inheriting a flat describes.

The one-line summary#

A housing society member may see the society's records and get copies within 45 days without saying why: put the request in writing, remind once, then take it to the Deputy Registrar.

This article is educational and not legal advice. For a dispute, consult a lawyer who practices before your state's RERA.