25 September,2011 08:04 AM IST | | Varun Singh
The residents of Summer Villa, a 26 year-old ground plus six-storey building in Santacruz (East), have finally won the fight against the builder and managed to register their building as co-operative housing society.
On July 3, Sunday MiD-DAY had reported that residents of Summer Villa building had decided to take matters into their hands and in 2007 approached the registrar's office to get the society registered, after waiting for the builder to register the society for 22 years.
On June 20 this year, the divisional registrar's office had directed the concerned office to register the society. However, builder Badruddin Patel filed an appeal with Co-operation Minister Harshvardhan Patil against the directive given by the registrar's office.
However, the registration process was further delayed as the residents found that the builder formed a condominium (an association of flats) and reserved all rights with himself. This, they allege, was done without their consent.
The residents also alleged that the builder was against the registration of the society as he wanted control over the terrace and the FSI. The charge was, however, denied by the builder.
In July this year, Patil dismissed the appeal by the builder and delivered the judgment in favour of the residents.
However, because of an accident that Patil met with a few months ago, the judgment was stuck. The residents received the copy of the judgment on September 20 and they registered the society on September 22.
"It feels great that finally my building is finally called Summer Villa Co-operative Housing Society and we hope the long battle with the builder ends with this," said Anjali Damania, who owns a shop in the building.
