Society Membership

*Section 22(2) of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 requires that when a society refuses admission, the decision with reasons be communicated to the applicant within 15 days of the decision or within three months from the date of receipt of the application for admission, whichever is earlier*. If the society does not communicate any decision within three months from the date of receipt, the applicant shall be deemed to have been admitted. The legal duty to communicate a refusal to an applicant arises under Section 22(2). The operative outer limit in the absence of an earlier decision is three months from the date of receipt of the application. The sixty day period in Section 23(2) is a limitation for filing an appeal against a communicated refusal; it is not a period within which the society must itself record a decision for Section 22(2) purposes. The statutory scheme separates the society’s obligation to communicate from the applicant’s right of appeal against a refusal. Where no refusal is shown to have been communicated within the statutory period, the statutory consequence is automatic deemed admission. The Deputy Registrar’s view in the appeal that an appeal under Section 23(2) requires a communicated refusal is legally sound. A challenge to a non-communicated decision is not maintainable under Section 23(2) because the statutory cause of action is a communicated refusal. The statute draw a distinction between admission to membership and enforcement of dues. A society may recover arrears by following the statutory recovery process which is already pending. It cannot simply refuse membership indefinitely on the ground that a dispute exists over alleged disputed dues if the statutory conditions for deemed admission have been met. - *Navjivan Commercial Premises Co-operative Society Ltd v General Hydraulics Pvt. Ltd [2026] GCtR 145 (Bombay)*