A minute
is a record of proceeding of a meeting of any Co-operative Housing Society
duly kept in pursuance of the Maharashtra
Co-operative Societies Act 1960 and Bye-laws.
Minutes contain inter alia a description of the type of meeting to which they
relate, its date, time and venue,
mention about persons attended the
meeting concerned, confirmation of minutes of previous meeting as a result of
practice, decisions taken process at the meeting, discussions held, voting on
resolutions, etc says Adv. R. P. Rathod.
1. Minutes of Annual General Meetings
2. Minutes of Special General Meetings
3. Minutes of Managing Committee Meetings
The normal practice is
handwritten in Minutes Register or typed out and then pasted in the Minutes with
seal of the Housing Society affixed on four corners of the page duly signed
by the Chairman and Secretary.
In certain cases, minutes may be kept in loose leaf binder provided the
following conditions are fulfilled:—
(i) The pages are serially
numbered seal affixed and signed as narrated above;
(ii) The loose
leaves are bound up at reasonable interval, say not exceeding six months;
(iii) There should be
proper locking device to ensure security and proper control to prevent
irregular removal of the loose leaves
Minutes of any Meeting should state
the name of the Co-operative Housing Society,
time, date, place, type of meeting,
a record of the name of the members
present in the meeting, etc. Minutes
should contain summary of the discussions held leading to the resolution
says Adv. R. P. Rathod.
If the
necessity for altering minutes arises before they are signed by the Chairman and Secretary but after they are written in the minute book, the
alteration may be made and initialed by the chairman and Secretary. Once minutes have been signed, they should
not on any account be altered adds Adv. R. P.
Rathod.
If it becomes
necessary to vary a resolution previously adopted, that variation should always
be carried out by means of a resolution passed at a subsequent
meeting only.
In the case if
it is subsequently desired that a resolution previously passed should not be
acted upon, the resolution should be formally rescinded by a separate
resolution at a later meeting. The minutes of the first meeting
being a correct record of what
took place at that meeting will remain, but a marginal note in red ink
may be made to the effect that the resolution is "Rescinded by resolution of the Meeting dated
.........".
Minutes
of the proceedings of meetings are an evidence of the
proceedings recorded therein. This does not mean, however, that such minutes
are conclusive evidence of the proceedings and cannot be brought into question.
Meaning is, in the event of any legal proceeding, it will
be accepted as evidence and the onus of disproving them will be upon the person
who is contesting their accuracy says Adv. R. P.
Rathod.
The Minutes book must be maintained and
kept at the office of the Housing Society. It cannot be taken to any other
place outside the premises except, for getting the same inspected from any authority
prescribed under the Law.
It is the duty of the Office Bearers/ Managing Committee to arrange the dispatching the hard copy of the
notices and final minutes
of the meeting with acknowledge due from the member if stationed outside the Co-operative Housing Society
or, email him the soft copy on his email ID registered with
the Housing Society.
I have an
experience of many Co-operative Housing Societies
who avail my Legal Advice in Mumbai &
Thane in the matter of administration
and Redevelopment of Housing Societies in Maharashtra who have
been following the rules very
meticulously as recited above with an exemplary status of maintenance of the records of
minutes. I brief below, the important excerpts from the latest Bye-Laws
governing the Co-operative Housing Societies in
Maharashtra for the benefit and knowledge of Managing Committees to
have effective maintenance of the minutes of various types of meetings held
says Adv. R. P. Rathod.
The person, who
presides over the first general meeting shall record the minutes of the
meeting, sign them and hand them over to the Secretary of the Society elected at the first meeting of
the Provisional Committee or nominated
by the Registration Authority
under the bye-law No.
89(b).
The committee
shall decide the date, time and place of every general body meeting of
the society and the business to be transacted thereat; provided that the
business to be transacted at the requisitioned special general body meeting
shall be only that mentioned in the requisition. The notice convening the general body meeting shall be issued by the Secretary of the Society
accordingly. On his failure to issue
the notice, the Chairman shall issue
it.
In case of the annual general body meeting,
14 clear day's notice and in the case of the special general body meeting,
5 clear day's notice of the meeting shall be given to all the members of the Society, under intimation to the Federation and to the Registering
Authority. In case of an
emergency, the special general body meeting may be called even at a shorter notice, if the Committee
unanimously decides to call the special general body meeting at a shorter notice.
The agenda
of such emergency meeting and the reasons of emergency for which the
meeting is called shall be communicated
in writing to all the members. Also the decision of such meeting shall be communicated in writing to all the members,
within two days of
such meeting.
The committee
shall finalize the draft minutes of
every general body meeting of the society within 3 months of the
date of the meeting and circulate the draft
minutes amongst all the members of the society
within 15 days
of the meeting of the Committee at which the draft minutes were finalized. The members of the
society may communicate to the Secretary of the Society, their
observations, if any, on the draft minutes, within 15 days of the date of their circulation.
The committee, at its subsequent meeting, shall prepare the final minutes
of the general body meeting after
taking into consideration the observations, if any, made by the members on the
draft minutes and cause them to be recorded in the minutes book,
by the Secretary of the Society or any other person authorized in that behalf.
Bye-Law137: Attending meetings of the Managing Committee and recording the minutes by the Secretary.
The Secretary
of the society shall attend every meeting of the Committee
and record its minutes and place the same for confirmation before the next
meeting of the Committee, after the
minutes are signed by the Secretary of the society and the Chairman of the
meeting. In the absence of the
Secretary of the society, the Chairman of the society shall make alternate arrangement for recording minutes of the meeting.
Whenever a
member is removed or resigned due to any reasons the same has also to be
recorded into the minutes of the committee meetings.
However, such vacancies to be filled by co-option shall not be more than two
concludes Adv. R. P. Rathod.
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