The upcoming residents’ welfare association (RWA) elections at Parsvnath Exotica on Golf Course Road, Sector 53 in Gurgaon, which are planned to be held on April 29, have run into a controversy.
As many as 300 residents and property owners of the condominium have alleged that they have been excluded from the RWA’s electoral rolls for the last five years. The angry residents have also filed a complaint with the district registrar of firms and societies (ROFS) seeking membership and voting rights within the RWA states a report published in HT.
The members say they have been denied voting rights despite paying the requisite membership fees.
According to the primary complainant in the matter, Yash Handa, the group of residents were denied the right to vote in the last elections in 2016 also. “The RWA maintains that we are not eligible because we do not possess occupancy certificates (OC) but there is no law that states that an OC is required for membership and voting.” gurugram news
“In some cases, people who have OC but have not signed conveyance deeds with the developer are also denied their right to vote. But that is the fault of the developer, why should they be barred from the RWA?” MK Ghai, another resident, said.
The RWA consists of close to 450 members and they maintain that the aggrieved residents are not legitimate property owners.
Dinesh Tandon, former president of Exotica Condominium Owners Association, said, “Only owners can vote in the RWA elections . For that, you need to have a signed title deed with the builder after receiving an OC for the apartment. This is mentioned in the Haryana Registration and Regulation of Societies Act, 2012. Most of the complainants do not have the deed and that’s why they cannot vote.”
However, some RWA members confirmed that these residents have paid the requisite membership fees (between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh).
One of the RWA member requesting anonymity said that the aggrieved residents have been made associate members of the RWA. “Nobody is excluding them, even though they are not even paying maintenance in the absence of title deeds."
However, the designation of associate members does not allow the residents to actively partake in administrative work, said Handa.
In September last year, aggrieved residents and had filed a complaint with the ROFS but did not receive an official response. Subsequently, they had lodged a complaint via the chief minister’s window.
Following that, an order from the ROFS was issued in October 2018, which instructed the RWA to “call a Special General Body Meeting... with specific agenda of membership of the complainants as resolve the same” as per state law and RWA bye-laws.
However, that meeting never convened, said the residents.
On March, the residents filed a fresh petition seeking resolution of the issue. District ROFS, Ishwar Chand Yadav, said, “I have received a petition regarding the membership dispute, which invokes Section 39(4) of the Haryana Registration and Regulation of Societies Act, 2012, which relates to non-inclusion of members and staying of elections. I cannot comment on the matter as it is sub-judice, but I have called for a hearing on April 11, and will resolve the issue before the election date.”
The election would not be allowed to proceed without the resolution of the dispute, added Yadav.
