Co-operative Consumer and Housing Societies
What the exam tests here
The working of consumer co-operatives, the reasons for their decline, and the classification, registration and management of housing societies, which form the largest group of societies in Maharashtra.
Consumer co-operation
- Structure: primary consumer stores at local level, central consumer stores at district level, State federation at apex, and the National Co-operative Consumers' Federation (1965) at national level.
- Functions: supply of food grains, groceries and consumer goods at reasonable prices, fair-price shop operation, bulk purchase advantage, price stabilisation.
- Weaknesses: credit sales to members, overstaffing, poor inventory control, competition from private retail, weak capital base and mismanagement.
- Consumer interest also rests on the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which created the Central Consumer Protection Authority.
Housing co-operatives
- Types: housing service society (builds allots houses to members), tenant ownership society (land held by society, houses owned by members), tenant co-partnership society (both land and building held by society), and house mortgage society.
- Registration is under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960; a flat purchaser becomes a member before transfer of the flat, and the society issues shares and a share certificate.
- Deemed conveyance: under the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963, if the promoter fails to convey title, the competent authority may deem the land and building conveyed to the society - a very frequent short-answer topic.
- Redevelopment and major structural repairs normally need the approval of a specially convened general body with a high (commonly 75 per cent) member majority, and bye-laws decide the exact procedure.
Worked example
A society of 80 members wants redevelopment. Approval requires 60 members on the stated 75 per cent basis, not a simple majority of those present. Reason it out: the threshold applies to total members, not to the quorum, which is the usual examiner's trap.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing tenant ownership with tenant co-partnership.
- Saying the promoter's refusal defeats conveyance - deemed conveyance exists precisely for that.
- Listing cooperative stores as profit-driven retail chains.