HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court refused to declare as null and void the registration of a society, Vasathi Anandi Owners Welfare Association, formed by flat-owners in an apartment under the provisions of the Telangana Societies Registration Act, 2001.
While dealing with an issue that the society’s registration is not in the ambit of Telangana Societies Registration Act, Justice Kanneganti Lalitha stated that there was a settled law by the Supreme Court as there is no such prohibition under any Act of Parliament.
Hence the court was not inclined to cancel the registration of the society registered by the owners of 483 flats in Vasathi Anandi project at Peeramcheruvu in Gandipet.
The project was constructed in 2013 by Vasathi Housing Ltd, which collected a corpus fund from the flat-owners for further maintenance. A conflict emerged over the time of handing over of the corpus fund and the flat-owners approached the National Company Law Tribunal and the civil court against the builder and promoter.
Meanwhile, Vasathi Housing Ltd approached the High Court pointing out that the formation of the society was illegal and sought its cancellation. Further, it submitted that as per Section 3 (1) of the Telangana Societies Registration Act, society registration was only for those into promotion of art, fine art, charity, crafts, religion, sports (excluding games of chance), literature, culture, science, political education and philosophy but not for flat owners.
P. Pratap, counsel for the petitioners, submitted that Section 3(1) of the Act clearly mentioned that the society can be registered for public purpose, which is not an indicative. Moreover, he brought to the notice of the court that the single judge of the High Court headed by Justice K. Lakshman had earlier allowed the apartment’s flat owners to register the society either under the Co-operative Act or Societies Registration Act.
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